The Banality of Evil: 2.0

Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt started a philosophical free-for-all with her reportage on the trial of Adolf Eichmann 61 years ago, proposing that he was not such a deep-down evil person, but more a hum-drum bureaucrat—therefore banal—who went along with an evil system. But that he deserved his fate of being put to death by the state of Israel in any case. 

Since her book, Eichmann in Jerusalem, came out in 1963, there have been numerous responses, many of them very critical of her seeming to let Eichmann off the hook. I do not want to get in the weeds of that debate, though I will offer this opinion: That Evil can be both/and. Evil is so subtle and smart and insidious that it can operate both out of radical hatred and lies and sadism, and bring along banal accomplices as well. (In Eichmann’s case, there is actually clear evidence from his own writing that he did espouse a radical Aryan philosophy of a pure race.)

In this DM I want to draw attention to the evil—both banal and radical—that lies behind the passage by 50 Republican senators and 218 Republican congress people of the Billionaire Welfare Bill (also known as the “Big Beautiful Bill” or “Big Ugly Bill” or by many other names).

Are the passers of this evil bill purely and radically evil? Or banally evil? And does it really matter, since the consequences are the same in either case? My own guess is that some of the politicians who embraced it are banal, but a good number are also radically evil. (Another name in our western vocabulary for radically evil is antichrist.)

The results are the same in either case. I appreciate the language of minority house leader Hakeem Jeffries who, in his eight-hour talk that delayed the passage of the bill so that it would not be done in the dark at 3:00 AM—which is what speaker Johnson wanted—but in the light of day which is what actually happened. In his talk to delay, he pointed out the difference between praying on Sunday in church (which many who passed the bill profess to doing) to preying on the most vulnerable Americans—which is what they all did by voting on the weekday in congress.

He also called the congressional floor a “crime scene,” and he is correct to anyone with a moral conscience (which excludes 268 Republican congresspeople).

It is true that some of those who voted for this obscene bill are too banal to know—or care—about the pain it will cause and how it contributes to the murder of American democracy. But it is also true that many of those who voted for it do know better. For both camps, it was about pleasing one person: The dear leader so as not to get primaried. AND the CEOs of corporations that will profit from it and will boost the politicians’ futures and fortunes.

To me, it is also a statement of the degradation and new low that capitalism has sunk to in our time. Greed personified, idolized, the new god of America with few guardrails left. SCOTUS’s Citizens United decision has accomplished its purpose.

It seems very little has been learned from the banality of evil 1.0. But it is the opposition’s job to shout that out, shed light on it. And resist, tell the truth, and offer alternatives to the banality of 2.0.

See Matthew Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society.

And Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ.

And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice.

And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.

And Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.

To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video meditation, click HERE.

Banner Image: The five appeal judges of the Israeli Supreme Court who upheld the guilty verdict in the trial of Otto Adolf Eichmann, 1962. Photo from the Government Press Office of Israel. Wikimedia Commons. 

Queries for Contemplation

How are you feeling about the passage of the Big, Bad, Budget Bill on behalf of Billionaires at the expense of 16 million ordinary citizens who will lose their health insurance? And 4 million who will lose their food assistance? And citizens and non-citizens alike who will be torn from their families by ICE whose budget is now greater than entire nations’ military budgets? And paying $4 trillion more on America’s increased debt? And what are you choosing to do about it while linking up with others who care?

Recommended Reading

Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society

Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them. 
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science.  A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics

Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election

Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE. 
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE. 
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.

A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice

In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate activity.
“Well worth our deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register

Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth

Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
“I am reading Liberating Gifts for the People of the Earth by Matt Fox.  He is one that fills my heart and mind for new life in spite of so much that is violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.

Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality

Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story