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The Banality of Both Evil and Good

 Fortunately they acted like normal people.

Günter Schabowski explaining why the border patrols in East Germany did not open fire on the crowds illegally crossing the border despite their instructions to do so.

The contrast between Hannah Arendt’s description of Adolf Eichmann and the other Nazis whose orderly actions reflected the “banality of evil” and Schabowski’s labeling of the decision by soldiers not to open fire as similarly banal is striking. 

I’m not sure what to make of it – and I’m curious as to what Schabowski would.

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