Eichmann in Jerusalem
A Report on the Banality of Evil
by Hannah Arendt · first published 1963
42% recommend54% neutral4% critical
Why HN recommends it
Report on the Eichmann trial arguing that great evil often comes from ordinary people working inside bureaucratic systems, not monsters. Suits readers thinking about responsibility at work; a good first Arendt.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil is a 1963 book by political theorist Hannah Arendt. Arendt, a Jew who fled Germany during Adolf Hitler's rise to power, reported on Adolf Eichmann's trial for The New Yorker. A revised and enlarged edition was published in 1964.
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I recommend reading Hannah Arendt's "Eichmann in Jerusalem". Arendt discusses this very issue WRT Nazis in WW2 -- in most cases, the systems are structured in such a way that there isn't an evil overlord making those decisions. Even amongst the Nazis, most…
on “The NSA and Me” ↗…to cite (it has been the focus of basically all political philosophy from WW2 forward) but relevant to this discussion, I can recommend Popper's "The Open Society and its Enemies", and Hannah Arendt's "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil". Also of interest are historical treatments of how support of libertarianism in the mid-18th century could coincide with the most brutal zenith of race-based slavery.…
on “On Liberty (1859) [pdf]” ↗…"evil" is useless in the sense that it doesn't have any explanatory power. That is, "Why did he do that? Because he was evil" is BS. Perhaps this book might convince you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eichmann_in_Jerusalem In it Hannah Arendt describes how what we perceive as "the great evils in history" like the Holocaust, were not executed by "evil" people (fanatics, etc), but by ordinary folks who "accepted the premises…
on “What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?” ↗>Unprofessional because we put the government's fault onto an employee's fault. Let's take a secretary. I suggest reading and considering Hannah Arendt's famous work, "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil" for a different perspective on this. Our typical idea of a perpetrator of evil is this malicious, moustache-twirling, cackling super-villain. The reality of how very…
on “Trevor Perrin requests removal of NSA from IETF Crypto Review” ↗…and how you cannot add something without taking something away. Truth is "revealing and concealing" because it is, outside math and hard science, perspectival. Essential reading for UX engineers. 2. _Eichmann in Jerusalem_, Hannah Arendt. Made me wiser about how evil works. "Evil" is a fun word to throw around and lends itself to silly political slogans, but the real thing is no joke, is out there, and does not look like…
on “Ask HN: Life Changing Books?” ↗Hannah Arendt wrote the fantastic "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil" about exactly this observation. That one of the principal enablers of the Holocaust seemed obsessed, not with the effects or outcomes of murdering Jews, but simply the…
on “I'm a developer for a major food delivery app” ↗…immoral actions is that they become what is, within that context, justice. Yes, that's a very important point to learn from at least the 20th century, I'd say. I you haven't already, read Hannah Arendt's "Eichmann in Jerusalem".
on “The Man Who Disobeyed His Boss and Opened the Berlin Wall” ↗…male abusers talk about women. It's important to see that the Nazis aren't 'utterly alien', but normal humans like you and me (a very well-regarded, well-known book on this issue is Hannah Arendt's "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil"). If we don't understand the reality of how people do bad things, we won't be able to prevent them. And the reality is that we all are prone to the same thinking and…
on “Can We Reduce Bias in Criminal Justice?” ↗Anyone interested in this story might also be interested in Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem (famous for its "banality of evil" thesis). She regarded his trial as nothing more than a show, a kangaroo court, meant to act as catharsis for the Jewish people and a world looking for a figurehead to…
on “Nuremberg: A Fair Trial? A Dangerous Precedent (1946)” ↗I submitted this because, ever since reading Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem, I've always thought about not only the tasks that I do, but who I do them for. Eichmann was a very talented engineer, but he used his talents to support one of the most brutal regimes in modern history.…
on “Pardon Plea by Adolf Eichmann, Nazi War Criminal, Is Made Public” ↗…responsible for their immoral actions (working for big pharma) just like the Nazis who ran the concentration camps were partially responsible for the Holocaust. Hannah Arendt tackles this subject in "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil."
on “Calling for a new approach to depression” ↗I find Origins can be a shaky entry point for folks trying Arendt for the first time. Especially for someone coming from Zarathustra. My vote here would be to try out Eichmann in Jerusalem as a good bridge into Arendt's thought, before making one's way to what I would call harder texts.
on “Friedrich Nietzsche: The truth is terrible” ↗…Adult fantasy series. Which is fine, and interesting for a while, but not a good way to think about how we would like our society to function. Go read Hannah Arendt's "On Violence", if you haven't. Or "Eichmann in Jerusalem." It's the banality of evil that's the really unsettling thing.
on “It's Time to Bust Police Unions” ↗> Personally I'd welcome some sort of intervention by one of the three-letter agencies - this time it could be actually for a good cause. Have you ever read a book by Hannah Arendt called Eichmann in Jerusalem? The whole point of the book is the sheer banality of evil -- that the bulk of evil is not the sensationalist stuff that makes up movies, but its boring, bureaucratic machinations and tacit complicity…
on “Brazil scientists map forest regrowth keeping Amazon from collapse: Study” ↗Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt. Makes you look at work so differently. We aspire to do our best work, but what if the outcome of the work on the world is adding up to it becoming a…
on “Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?” ↗