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> “It goes back to Hannah Arendt’s banality of evil a bit,” says director Andrew Neel. “These everyday things that are beloved to us, like food, can take on an entirely different dimension within the context of a dictatorship.” That’s not at all what Arendt was writing about. She was writing about those who do evil things are rarely the “evil” monsters we imagine but rather bureaucrats motivated by things like promot…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is disconcerting that a large portion of people (many in government) actually believe Trump was appointed by God to lead the United States. If any US president could become a dictator, it's him, and I don't blame people for being worried.
The people who believe that believe that every US President is appointed by God. This is a very common Christian view and there’s nothing special about Trump in this regard. By the same token, Biden and Obama were also. It’s an interesting subject.
Around Trump's inauguration, I heard people making the "Trump appointed by God" statement as if he were uniquely appointed by God - as if he was different from Biden and Obama.
Now, that's not Christian theology. The Christian position is as you stated. And second, the "Trump uniquely" thing is (almost certainly) not the position everybody who believes or says that Trump was appointed by God. But the prominent people, the ones being quoted, sure sounded like they believed "Trump uniquely", which is a distinctly non-Christian position.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is disconcerting that a large portion of people (many in government) actually believe Trump was appointed by God to lead the United States. If any US president could become a dictator, it's him, and I don't blame people for being worried.
The people who believe that believe that every US President is appointed by God. This is a very common Christian view and there’s nothing special about Trump in this regard. By the same token, Biden and Obama were also. It’s an interesting subject.
Or neither.
I don't think the president is one bit more important or special than any of the teachers I've had. I know he does think so, but that's his business, not mine.
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> “It goes back to Hannah Arendt’s banality of evil a bit,” says director Andrew Neel. “These everyday things that are beloved to us, like food, can take on an entirely different dimension within the context of a dictatorship.” That’s not at all what Arendt was writing about. She was writing about those who do evil things are rarely the “evil” monsters we imagine but rather bureaucrats motivated by things like promot…
> “It goes back to Hannah Arendt’s banality of evil a bit,” says director Andrew Neel. “These everyday things that are beloved to us, like food, can take on an entirely different dimension within the context of a dictatorship.” That’s not at all what Arendt was writing about. She was writing about those who do evil things are rarely the “evil” monsters we imagine but rather bureaucrats motivated by things like promot…
[flagged]
> “It goes back to Hannah Arendt’s banality of evil a bit,” says director Andrew Neel. “These everyday things that are beloved to us, like food, can take on an entirely different dimension within the context of a dictatorship.” That’s not at all what Arendt was writing about. She was writing about those who do evil things are rarely the “evil” monsters we imagine but rather bureaucrats motivated by things like promot…
Hannah Arendt's 'banality of evil,' as I understand it, refers to human beings who are incapable of thinking. Within a massively bureaucratized and divided system, the immense guilt of killing someone is broken down into tiny, mundane tasks, like stamping a document. Because the system absorbs all individual moral friction, ordinary people can become cogs in a vast machinery of evil without ever questioning it. (In o…
Spot on!
Your comment explains why massive bureaucracies can get nearly anything done, because people are just following orders. For example Jallianwala Bagh (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jallianwala_Bagh), the people shooting were just following orders. Nearly all atrocities can be explain by the design of bureaucracies to eliminate moral friction.
Reminds me of Vogons[1] and Nobody cares[2]
[1] Here is what to do if you want to get a lift from a Vogon: forget it. They are one of the most unpleasant races in the Galaxy. Not actually evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous. They wouldn't even lift a finger to save their own grandmothers from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal without orders—signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters. The best way to get a drink out of a Vogon is to stick your finger down his throat, and the best way to irritate him is to feed his grandmother to the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal. On no account should you allow a Vogon to read poetry at you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogon
[2] https://grantslatton.com/nobody-cares and discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42707238