Speak no evil?

I passed this statue on the way to the cinema this evening - is it one of the 'wise monkeys'?



Suitably enough, the film was Hannah Arendt, who was a German-American political theorist in the 60s and 70s, famous for her concept of 'the banality of evil' - that the Holocaust, and by extension other historical evils, were not executed by fanatics or sociopaths, but by ordinary people who considered their actions to be 'normal'.



The film focuses on her reporting of the trial of the Nazi Adolf Eichmann in 1961 for New Yorker magazine. In particular, much is made of the controversy about her criticism the Jewish leaders could have done more to protect their people from the Nazis - which was misinterpreted, deliberately or otherwise, as her defending Eichmann and blaming Jewish leaders for the Holocaust.



It's a hard subject to translate into a biopic: the 'action' is limited to a couple of Mossad manoeuvres (firstly in capturing Eichmann in Argentina, then in confronting Arendt herself). Little is made of the trial, perhaps as Ardent was involved only on the sidelines as observer and commentator - though it's slightly surprising that there was no mention of the juicy dodgy dealing between the Israeli and German governments which ended up with the prosecution making no mention of former Nazis in then German government - and the 'coincidental' DM240m in military aid received from them by Israel.



But it's not just lots of accents, smoking and hints at her relationships with the various men (and women) in her life - though there is that too. What it does highlight is Arendt's intellectual honesty in trying to understand Eichmann rather than just condemn him. She argued that what was notable was not that he was a terrible psychopath, but rather his normality and inability to see beyond what he saw as his duty to obey orders and the law - summed up in the memorable title of her book, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil.



As I understand it, this makes it all the more chilling: if people responsible for such terrible evils are seen as monsters, we can rest assured that they are extraordinary; but if they are ordinary, they are just like - and could be - you or me.