The Banality of Evil and The Hope of Goodness

In 1963, Hannah Arendt published her coverage of Adolf Eichmann’s trial in Jerusalem. Eichmann, a former Nazi agent captured in Argentina, was a bureaucrat who had never committed the physical act of murder, but rather designed and oversaw the train schedules for the transport of Jews and other prisoners to the death camps. Arendt titled her account “a report on the banality of evil.”

Earlier this month, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel passed away. Wiesel famously used his voice to promote tolerance, humanity, and unity, despite bearing witness to and suffering through some of the worst evil in all of our species’ history. Among his many memorable quotes, one in particular stands out: We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.

As in Arendt and Wiesel’s day, we too live in a world in which evil is committed both by violent murderers — although on a far smaller scale — and by bureaucrats and businessmen in rather innocuous places. But unlike then, we inhabit a time when technology allows us to more easily hide our more banal sins while simultaneously making them harder than ever to keep from the eyes of the world.

Combating today’s violent evils — terrorism, sexual and domestic slavery, even mass shootings — will take varied and complex forms, but combating the banality of evil can in some instances be done much more easily by taking Wiesel at his word, and refusing to remain silent.

I’m not suggesting that posting memes on social media will bring real or immediate change, and I realize that having the time to engage in such activity requires a degree of effort and luxury, but that’s exactly the point. The banality of evil churns behind the scenes like clockwork, like Eichmann’s trains. It will necessarily take time and energy to combat it, but we live in a society, and increasingly in a world, in which we possess the means to promote good on a daily basis; anyone of us at any time can share a moment of happiness and joy.

We have already seen how smartphones have exposed some of the more banal and hidden evils in our society, emphasizing the need for the #blacklivesmatter movement, among others.

Using our voices to expose injustice is important, noble, and necessary. Equally necessary is using our voices to replace the banality of evil with the hope of goodness. The means to demand a better world are literally at our fingertips. Let us use them. Let us use the platforms we’ve been given to elevate the hope of goodness, and let us remember that such an effort is ongoing and requires our constant vigilance.

As Edmund Burke told us: The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. Today, good people are more equipped than ever to do something. So do it.

#DomesticAffairs