The Banality of Evil: Arendt's Core Claims

“Arendt after the trial: 'The deeds were monstrous, but the doer, at least the very effective one now on trial, was quite ordinary, commonplace, and neither demonic nor monstrous. [...] The only specific characteristic one could detect in his past as well as in his behavior during the trial was something entirely negative: it was not stupidity but a curious, quite authentic inability to think.' [...] On thinking as moral safeguard: 'The manifestation of the wind of thought is not knowledge. It is the ability to tell right from wrong, beautiful from ugly. And this indeed may prevent catastrophes, at least for myself, in the rare moments when the chips are down.' [...] On plurality: 'The fact of human plurality... is the basic condition of both action and speech.' — Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963); The Life of the Mind (1978); The Human Condition (1958); SEP 'Hannah Arendt'”