Arendt: The Banality of Evil

Gaza, Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Iran , Taiwan, North Korea ... run up to WW3

Hannah Arendt, Ph.D. (1906-1975) Hannah Arendt was a German-American historian and philosopher. She was one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century. One of her most famous quotes opened a new door of understanding for me, “The sad truth of the matter is that most evil is done by people who never made up their minds to be or do either good or evil.”

As a 73 year old human I’m deeply disturbed by the genocide in Gaza. Yesss … war has been the backdrop of American life nearly every year since I was born in 1950. And ever since I was a young man I have studied WW2 trying to understand the mind of the Nazi’s. As a therapist and professor of psychology since 1975 I thought … thought … I understood human nature. I even taught classes on how soldiers are trained to become killers.

I’ve been asking myself why this genocide in Gaza is different and so disturbing? I mean, I’ve even studied the Nazi Einsatzgruppen. Those SS soldiers (age 20-40), led by high class-highly educated officers, perpetrated some of the most horrific massacres of WW2. The massacre(s) at Babi Yar for example.

Babi Yar is a ravine in Ukraine, near Kyiv. In November of 1941 Einsatzgruppe C ordered all Jews in the city to proceed to a specific location. After being marched three kilometres (two miles) northwest of the city centre, the victims encountered a barbed wire barrier and numerous Ukrainian police and German troops. Thirty or forty people at a time were told to leave their possessions and were escorted through a narrow passageway lined with soldiers brandishing clubs. Soon the victims reached an open area, where they were forced to strip, and then were herded down into the ravine. People were forced to lie down in rows on top of the bodies of other victims, and they were shot in the back of the head or the neck by members of the execution squads. The murders continued for two days, claiming a total of 33,771 victims.

I remember thinking, ‘these men of Einsatzgruppe C must have been sadists selected based on their psychopathy.’ But of course that wasn’t true. These were typical German men who had been influenced to believe Jews and Romani were non-humans, had become desensitized to killing and sincerely believed they were protecting their country.

Still, this genocide in Gaza is deeply disturbing. How can these IDF soldiers murder tens of thousands of women and children? Then I re-discovered Professor Hannah Arendt’s classic treatise from 1963, Eichmann in Jerusalem, A Report on the Banality of Evil. In this most relevant book for our times Dr. Arendt follows the trial of Otto Adolph Eichmann accused of crimes against humanity for serving as one of the architects of the Final Solution.

Arendt reports that Eichmann portrayed himself as an obedient bureaucrat who merely carried out his assigned duties and was following the law. As for the charges against him, Eichmann maintained that he had not violated any law and that he was “the kind of man who cannot tell a lie.” Denying responsibility for the mass killings, he said, “I couldn’t help myself; I had orders, but I had nothing to do with that business.”

Arendt went on to state that she expected Eichmann to be a monster filled with deep seated hatred when in reality he was a boring ordinary man. A man who stated he could not stomach all the death and destruction but simply was doing his job. Arendt, in this book and others, does her best to understand and explain how and why the common man can act in such a sadistic fashion. Ultimately she came to a simple conclusion, ‘Ordinary people commit atrocities without awareness, care, or choice.’ In other words, depending on circumstances and the power of influencers people act in an evil fashion.

So allow me to turn to IDF Soldiers and Gaza.

Below are images of ‘evil’ IDF soldiers. If you saw any of these young men walking down the street you probably would not feel you are in danger. Maybe you would even smile at these handsome happy faces. And yet, these young men have committed horrible atrocities or at least did not try to stop atrocities that were being perpetrated by their peers. How can this be? (The images are taken from a website called, lonesoldiercenter.com)

Arendt would tell you that these young men are not evil, are not psychopaths and just normal, ordinary … maybe even boring … typical young men. Young men who probably … PROBABLY … never were allowed the opportunity to formulate their own values and beliefs about Palestinians. Many of us in America have come to the realization that we were uninformed about Israel and Palestine. And now we are aghast. Arendt warns us, any very young man or woman who has not established their own identity and morality, who have been indoctrinated by their culture, has the capability of becoming a murderer. Are capable of believing that Palestinians are non-humans and that they all must be exterminated.

I want to believe I would have been different. But as a vulnerable naive 18 year old with no sense of self I probably could have become Einsatzgruppen, or a member of Calley’s murderous group or IDF. This frightens me. To the core.

As elders we MUST understand this. We MUST end this insanity. Biden and Trump are NOT the leaders we need now. We NEED someone who won’t turn our young men and women into IDF-Einsatzgruppen. We MUST act now. We are out of time. WW3 is about to begin. The Mother via the Climate Crisis will end us. We MUST stop this insanity NOW. Mitakuye Oyasin … all are my relatives.

LONE SOLDIERS FYI

A “lone soldier” is a soldier in the IDF with no family in Israel to support him or her: a new immigrant, a volunteer from abroad, an orphan or an individual from a broken home.

Every day tens of thousands of soldiers are defending the State of Israel and its citizens. These soldiers regularly spend weekends and holidays at home where their parents provide for all of their needs: food, laundry, and even a hug. Challenges for a lone soldier arise when he or she leaves base. While Israeli-born lone soldiers have their families to return home to, lone soldiers are left to fend for themselves while on leave from the army. This can be once a month, or every weekend, depending on where they serve and what part of training they are in. For more than 7,000 lone soldiers, there is no immediate family in Israel to support them. Though highly motivated and proud to serve, when on leave, many of them struggle with basic needs that a family would solve.

HOW MANY LONE SOLDIERS ARE THERE?

There are over 7,000 lone soldiers currently serving in the IDF. About 45% of these soldiers are new immigrants, coming from Jewish communities all over the world. Another 50% are Israelis who are orphans or that come from low socio-economic backgrounds. There are some that come from ultra orthodox neighborhoods who are shunned by their families and communities because they decided to go to the army.

Most lone soldiers are placed in combat units and come highly motivated to serve in the Israeli army. At any given time, these soldiers are awake and aware, guarding Israel’s borders by land, air and sea.