The Banality of Evil

opinion by Donald Torrence

Whenever I hear President Bush and other neocon ideologues refer to the axis of evil or anoint themselves as civilized and their enemies as uncivilized, I immediately think of Hanna Arndt's classic study of totalitarianism, in which she makes reference to "the banality of evil." A brilliant political philosopher, Arndt used the phrase to characterize the German operatives that were responsible for carrying out the holocaust.

Upon fulfilling their daily tasks, these operatives would go home to their families and indulge their children, love their significant other, and generally carry on a routine existence. They were not different from the norm. They demonstrated no exceptional proclivity to violence or aggression. They simply carried out orders and did a good job at whatever tasks they were assigned within the Third Reich.

Molded by an institutional structure that emphasized race, these operatives easily objectified the Jews and other targeted minorities as expendable. Objectifying and dehumanizing the other is played out over and over again in nationalistic groups, who propagate a dehumanizing rationale for attacking others.

I pose this question: is Arndt's banality of evil applicable to George W. Bush and the neocon operatives that surround him? Are they ordinary people who are capable of compassion within a constricted class and race, and who--outside of this context--are capable of ordering the destruction of others they define as expendable?

Bush Wolfowitz, Perle, Cheney, Rumsfelt: all have verbalized a simplistic world view which demonizes the other and calls for a crusade of civilization against barbarism.

Those holding and espousing such simplistic dichotomies do not understand the nuances of reality, because they have embraced a black-and-white world which justifies their own interests: control of the Middle East and ultimately the world.

The arrogance is frightening, and the parallels are startling. Hitler's call for Aryan dominance mirrors calls for nationalistic supremacy in the lexicon of Bush and his advisors. The Abu Ghraib revelations are concrete evidence of the moral cesspool that George W. Bush and his minions are overseeing. The attempt by sycophantic media to portray them as visionaries motivated by their wish to bring democracy to the Middle East is not credible, as the reality of death, torture, and chaos shatters the illusionary patina. What the world and the American people are beginning to see is the banality of evil as it emanates from Bush and his operatives.