17/03/2026
Issue #21 | Hannah Arendt
by Frances Gwen J. Fang
This National Women's Month, let us revisit Hannah Arendt's political thought.
First, I start with the question, would you rather be lonely or stupid? We'll get back to this later.
"The banality of evil" is a philosophical concept by Hannah Arendt that describes how cruelty is not only committed by monsters but also by ordinary people who mindlessly follow orders or procedures without intentional thought.
One of the most popular quotes attributed to her is, "Evil comes from the failure to think."
Evil can be a philosophically broad concept. In simple understanding aligned with Arendt, it is characterized by the lack of thought, leading to the failure to see others as human persons. A stark example is how an individual deliberately or treacherously murders another with no remorse, but of course, that is the extreme. There are evil deeds that happen without seemingly affecting other people, such as bribing a traffic officer. Both are evil in distinct degrees, but are under the guise of thoughtlessness of both the deed itself and the results it may bring.
Arendt argues that the failure to think critically is exploited by totalitarian governments seeking to exercise total control over every aspect of public and private life. Totalitarianism thrives by the use of ideology, manifested in the form of attempting to convince others about a metaphysical truth without scientific evidence. It is important to note that Arendt's thought emphasizes the reconstruction of political existence.
According to Arendt,
The way that people get others to mindlessly accept an ideology is to make sure that they are lonely.
Being lonely and in solitude are two different things. Solitude is the gateway to human creative thought, making it the last thing that totalitarian organizations want from the people they sought to govern. The totalitarian government abolishes classes. They want masses that accept an ideology with little to no resistance.
Their goal is to make people lonely and feel banished from society, or simply feel guilty of deviance, which in turn leads them to conform to a "non-thinking" society passive enough to not even entertain a pivotal role of revolution. Arendt posits that loneliness in the political sphere amounts to loneliness in the social sphere.
Being lonely is characterized by a sense of abandonment by society, leading to non-participation in any political movement. Stupid people easily conform. Lonely people don't see any purpose in conforming but overlook the fact that by doing so, they are bound to do what others do to maintain their status. Lonely people are stagnant. Stupid people are, in essence, directionless.
When asked if you'd rather be lonely or stupid, answer that metaphysics and reality do not limit your being or political existence. The question does not require you to see only two options in the first place. Only "ordinary" people think that way.
