> Banality of Evil? Come on. Equating SIGINT programs to protect America's interest with the Nazi party is really shrill. Comparisons based on common themes ar

> Banality of Evil? Come on. Equating SIGINT programs to protect America's interest with the Nazi party is really shrill. Comparisons based on common themes are not the same as holding that the things being compared are equal. The source material for the quote is a general comment upon evil, drawn from a reflection upon Eichmann. It is not a specific comment upon the Nazis, but that normal people doing things that seem perfectly normal (indeed right) to them can perpetuate terrible crimes. The observation goes something like this: "The trouble with Eichmann was precisely that so many were like him, and that many were neither perverted nor sadistic, that they were, and still are, terribly and terrifyingly normal. From the viewpoint of our legal institutions and our moral standards of judgement, this normality was much more terrifying than all the atrocities put together, for it implied… This new type of criminal… Commits his crimes under circumstances that make it well-nigh impossible for him to know or feel that he is doing wrong" (s.276) "It was as though in those last minutes [of Eichmann's life] he was summing up the lesson that this long course in human wickedness taught us – the lesson of the fearsome, word-and-thought-defying banality of evil." (s.252) - Eichmann in Jerusalem: A report on the Banality of Evil. Hannah Arendt.