Hannah Arendt

Their big question

Why do good people sometimes do bad things together?

Hannah Arendt was German and Jewish. She escaped from the Nazis, lived as a refugee, and spent her life thinking about power, truth and crowds.

She went to watch the trial of a Nazi official named Eichmann, expecting a monster. What she saw was a bored, ordinary man using big words and saying ‘I was just following orders and doing my job well’.

That shook her. Her idea, which people still argue about, is that great evil often does not need evil people. It needs people who stop thinking for themselves and let other people supply the words.

Her conclusion was practical, and it is aimed straight at children: thinking is a moral duty, not a school subject.

“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”

Not making up your mind is itself a decision - and usually somebody else's.

Three things worth knowing

• She was thrown out of Germany in 1933 and was stateless for eighteen years before she got a passport.
• She wrote that the hardest thing about being a refugee is not being wanted anywhere - not losing your house.
• Her last unfinished project was called 'Judging' - about how you decide what to do.

Try it — think like Hannah

Take a rule you follow (school rules count). Answer three questions in writing: who made it? would I make the same one? what happens to someone who breaks it? Congratulations - you are doing what Arendt asked for.

Hannah Arendt 1933 — Unknown authorUnknown author. Source on Wikimedia Commons.