"The Banality of Evil: She Exposed How Normal People Fuel Oppression.🤯
Play & learn about Hannah Arendt's arty refugee experience 🎮
Click here to play & learn.
Back Story
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975), a Jewish German-American political theorist challenged understanding of refugees by framing statelessness as a consequence of both humanitarian crises and political failures.
As a refugee herself, Arendt fled Nazi Germany in 1933, after briefly spending time imprisoned by the Gestapo due to critiquing Nazism, she subsequently spent 8 years in Paris, before moving to the United States in 1941, and becoming a naturalised citizen of the United States in 1951.
Her life experiences are embodied in her phenomenological approach that focuses on lived experiences that emphasises the active life over abstract philosophy (The Human Condition (1958)). The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) underscores her critique of nation-states and ‘inalienable human rights’ are exclusive to citizens. Refugees, existing as outsiders, are ultimately rightless.
Additionally, she argues for the ‘banality of evil’ - a concept rooted in her analysis of Adolf Eichmann (Nazi). Here, she points to how ordinary individuals enable systemic oppression through thoughtless conformity. The broader critique of totalitarianism is how the oppressive mindset lingers even after ideologies like Nazism or Stalinism falls, shaping even supposed democracies. Refugee crises were a symptom of flawed political structures.
Today, Arendt’s insights prove rather relevant as exclusionary and populist politics rise in Western Europe, with parties like Germany’s AfD and the UK’s Reform gaining traction through an ‘us versus them’ narrative. Her work creates a counter-narrative that challenges on to confront systems that perpetuate refugee suffering and to reimagine political communities that preface inclusivity for all.
Through her writings and her own experiences, Arendt gives a voice to the stateless, offering a powerful critique of the systems that fail them and a hopeful vision for progress, seeking for all to hold the ‘right to have rights’ and for humanity to co-exist in plurality.
In this post Nicole highlights the arty refugee experience of Hannah Ardent. She is a citizen journalist on a placement with us organised by Oxford University Career Services. She also organised the micro game to make the journalistic experience interactive.
Thank you for reading an A4R 🎨 Post. Don’t forget to visit our gift shop here. Every purchase scales our impact and pays our bills.
