Exploring Arendt's 'Banality of Evil' Theory

Hannah Arendt discovered a concept known as “The banality of Evil” during the time of the Holocaust, she wanted to understand the nature of evil and explain how it can be different from the concept of radical evil. Her theory arose from the actions led by a man whose job was to organize the transportation of Jews to concentration camps in various cities. Adolf Eichman was a typical Bureaucrat. Arendt described him as an average joe whose sole purpose was to be successful and follow the orders lead by his superior, Hitler. The orders led by Hitler are portrayed as motives led by absolute evil or “radical evil”. Arendt noted in her philosophy paper that there is a significant difference of character in Hitler and Eichman such that Hitler was

There are three steps to superfluousness, the first stepy is to “Kill the Juridical person in man” which outlines the destruction of man’s civil rights through restrictions that are enforced by the law. The second step is to “kill the moral person”, this forces human beings to make the wrong choices in situations that are incomprehensible. The final step of dehumanization is to “kill the spontaneous person”, the motive led by Adolf Hitler supporting this step was to eliminate the capacity to unpredictability for new creations by one’s own resources, “ultimately destroy human spontaneity, individuality and plurality” (Arendt, Cp). Hitler cultivated his own army to destroy selective demographics, he wanted to create a world where his concept of ideal was the only one that existed. As a dictator he was able to constitute laws, anyone who chose to disobey these laws would be executed. Laws that are put into place can define success through evil acts. The Holocaust is a direct example as Hitler knew he would be able to brainwash human beings to obey his commands contributing to the success of his dehumanizing

sole purpose is to attain success and surpass his business goals. He is responsible for leading a team to market the new sugary snack “Zoo Chews” to children, his actions exemplify what Hanna Arendt describes as “the banality of evil”. Henderson is quickly convinced that a successful market strategy using the means of an online game will give rise to the life of zoo chew characters and result in increased profitability. Henderson supports the statement he made to his team “You can’t argue with success”, this states that as long as the product is being consumed and profits are being made then the motives which generated the profitability is irrelevant. Arendt would argue that similar behavioral traits was noted in Eichmanns case. Eichmann defended his position in court justifying that he strived for success and was ordered to complete his tasks delegated by Hitler. Henderson motives to “secure and advance his career’ relates to Eichmanns reasoning for committing the monstrous