Arendt: The Holocaust and the Common Evil.

From the social system, Bowman believes that modern civilization has created a possible environment for the massacre, because of rationality and bureaucracy; Hannah arendt, who was exiled from Germany to the United States, analyzed the Holocaust from a personal perspective. She created a concept: the evil of mediocrity.

Arendt's mediocrity is not a screw theory. The so-called ordinary people are just a screw or gear in the bureaucratic system, just obeying procedures and executing orders, so they become a part of the killing machine coldly. Nor is it evil caused by the public, such as bystander effect; To understand the evil of mediocrity, we need to understand extreme evil at the same time.

Arendt's evil mediocrity refers to an extraordinary shallowness, an incredible and very real loss of thinking ability. This "mediocrity" is essentially a kind of "thoughtlessness", that is, not thinking. This is the uniqueness of the evil of mediocrity.

Extremely evil refers to the extremes of nature. Because the Nazi Holocaust presents a unique and unprecedented feature, which is "completely incomprehensible". Kant said that "man is an end, not just a means". It is immoral to trample on human dignity if you only regard others as a means to realize your own interests. What is shocking about the Nazi Holocaust is that the Nazis not only did not regard the Jews as an end, but even did not regard them as tools and means.

"Extremely evil" and "mediocre evil" are actually two sides of an organic whole. The Nazi Holocaust was an extreme evil, but this extreme evil was committed by some "mediocre" criminals. The essence of this "evil mediocrity" in these criminals is not thinking, but losing the ability to think.

Arendt came to the conclusion after studying the Nazi leader Eichmann at that time. At that time, Eichmann talked about Kan Kan in court and even quoted Kant's famous words to defend himself. He said that he was performing his duties and obeying the law, because in the Third Reich, "the order of the Fuehrer is the absolute core of the existing law", so he not only obeyed the law, but also unified his will with the "principles behind the law". This accords with Kant's philosophy.

Arendt, on the other hand, thinks that Eichmann is full of cliches, which makes him fall into cliches. He also used these platitudes as his shield and weapon, and used them to resist reality and refuse real thinking and dialogue.

This evil of mediocrity is similar to many of us who are inspired by media emotions. Arendt's thinking ability is actually the ability to think positively and gain independent judgment. Relying on this kind of thinking quality, we can get rid of cliches and make our own judgments about right and wrong.

So how can we avoid this evil of mediocrity? Arendt believes that traditional moral laws and enlightenment can no longer promote real moral thinking. The true meaning of morality lies not in obeying rules, but in judging right and wrong independently.

But the problem is that "independence" does not mean "correctness". There are rules to follow, but if you want to judge independently, you have to abandon your obedience to the established rules, establish your own standards, and legislate for yourself. The risk is too great, because there is no standard at all.

And how to judge independently? Arendt's advice is to learn from Socrates, live a life of self-reflection forever and keep talking to your heart. Because such people can face themselves calmly, don't deceive themselves with rules and rhetoric, and preserve the integrity of their personality.

Arendt's revelation:

How many times have we really thought about it, instead of following the crowd or inertia? Thinking is a painful thing. Socrates said that an unexamined life is not worth living. Ask yourself, have I thought for myself? Do you really look up at the starry sky and have a moral law in your heart?