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In reply to the discussion: A Raid on the Unspeakable [View all]TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)her description of the "banality of evil."
She's been slammed over the years from many quarters, but her essential point that what we may consider "evil" can become the norm, and it's a fundamental human concept that we can become conditioned to it and see it as normal. Then, of course, we have to question if it is still evil if it becomes a norm. Which leads us into questions of the origins of ethics, justice, and all that. (Which, eventually, leads us into madness if we don't watch it.)
But, then there is that "unspeakable" which is so out of the norm that it demands attention. For the Nazis, who condemned millions to death without a qualm and conducted an aggressive war with more millions dead, murder for profit, revenge, or the other usual causes of murder was an outrage and relentlessly punished. Taking the jewelry of the victims of the death camps for the state was normal and accepted, but sticking a gold ring or two in your own pocket was punishable by death. Yeah, even the Nazis could have their own "unspeakables."
Here and now, we have a dull background of unspeakable deaths, but by starvation, neglect, terrible neighborhoods, low income, and the occasional murder... and who raises the alarms and call for action? One cluster of deaths by a presumed mad man and we finally notice, as well we should. But we still don't rise up against the daily carnage.