This phrase was used by Hannah Arendt in her 1963 book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. The phrase is usually meant to suggest that evil is not an oddity in the world; that, rather, all people, and all situations, can become evil, since evil is done by ordinary people in situations that lead to negative actions. It is not clear that this is exactly what Arendt meant by the phrase, as she certainly believed that Eichmann performed incredibly negative, harmful, unjustified, horrific actions against others, and that he was completely aware of the nature of his behavior. He was "following orders," he arguably should have been aware that his actions were morally atrocious ones. However, Arendt points out at numerous points in the book that...

"The trouble with Eichmann was precisely that so many were like him, and that the many were neither perverted nor sadistic, that they were, and still are, terribly and terrifyingly normal," (Arendt, 276).

"He was summing up the lesson that this long course in human wickedness had taught us-- the lesson of the fearsome, word-and-thought-defying banality of evil," (Arendt, 252).

It can also be considered that the "banality of evil" refers not to the ordinary people caught up in situations that lead to negative consequences, but what they view to be the ordinary nature of their action. As Arendt mentions, Eichmann was completely aware of his behavior, yet he committed these horrific crimes. Maybe Eichmann felt his actions were ordinary in regards to human nature? That any man in his position, who is "following orders," would take the same course of action as he did.

Link to Hannah Arendt's book: Eichmann in Jerusalem

Eichmann Trial News Reel




Rethinking the "Banality of Evil"
A review of David Cesarani's book Becoming Eichmann:Rethinking the Life, Times, and Trial of a "Desk Murderer" Danny Balfour and Guy Adams explain how Cesarani could dispute Arendt's age-old concept of the banality of evil. Balfour and Adams while explaining Cesarani's position also disagree with assertion that "Eichmann was a product of a virulently anti-Semitic culture that supported with enthusasiam the policie of Nazi regime and the activities of its servants." (to be continued...)