Arendt: Meditation and Rebellion in Commemorating hannah arendt's Centennial Birthday.
There are eight Chinese translations of hannah arendt's works and several biographies. Although her main work The Origin of Totalitarianism was not published in Chinese mainland, her name and main ideas have been known to readers since 1990s.
Arendt was born in June 65438 +09061October+April 65438 in a Jewish family in Hanover, Germany. Her parents are members of the Social Democratic Party and her mother is an admirer of Luxembourg. She studied philosophy, theology and ancient Greek at Marburg and Freiburg universities, and then transferred to Heidelberg University, where she studied under Heidegger and karl jaspers, deeply influenced by existentialism. 1933 after the Nazis came to power, they participated in the secret activities of Zionism, were once arrested, and then moved to Paris. In France, she continued to work for Jewish organizations. 1940, he married the exiled producer Heinrich blucher. In the same year, he was put into Gul concentration camp. After the fall of France, he fled to Marseille with his mother and blucher, and went to the United States the following year. On the whole, she likes America. After the victory of World War II, a large number of German intellectuals returned to Germany, and she insisted on staying. Here, she first worked for the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction Committee. She is an editor of Shelken Publishing House, a professor at the University of Chicago, and has given lectures at several universities. In the meantime, he published a variety of political science works and other works. There are: The Origin of Totalitarianism, The Human Condition, On Revolution, * * and Crisis, Eichmann in Jerusalem, etc. 197565438+On February 4th, he died of myocardial infarction in his apartment in new york.
Arendt's image as a political scholar was formed in the United States. As a scholar, she has greatly broadened the scope of political science, such as "totalitarianism", which is very original. It comes from the experience of the times and has never appeared in political classics since Aristotle. Because she insisted on writing freely, she had to break the academic norms of the academic school. It is no accident that most of her works appear in the form of comments and essays. However, in her passionate expression, her innate meditative temperament is everywhere. She turned from philosophy to politics.
In the eyes of positivists, Arendt's works are neither rigorous nor biased. In fact, she was injured in one way or another before she died. But the key is that she intervened in reality in time and focused her thoughts on the problem of "human situation", which reached the core of the times. She is convinced that the true thinker lies not in completeness, but in openness. He didn't end the truth by himself and give it to people like a prophet, but opened the door to thinking and let himself and people act together in thinking, which is what distinguishes Arendt from traditional scholars as a modern scholar.
In establishing his personal identity, Arendt did not regard himself as a pure German or a pure Jew, but as a German Jew. She refused to be assimilated by both German culture and Zionism. For the United States, she is also a "foreign daughter". She wants to be a marginal person, an outsider and a "conscious untouchable". Scholars always like to flaunt "value neutrality", but what she strives for is only the independence of identity, but her value tendency is clear. The desire for freedom made her always adhere to the position of independent criticism and not afraid of self-isolation. The Eichmann trial is the most prominent example. We can see that she not only challenges the common concepts of good and evil in society, "beautifies" butchers and public enemies, but also directly points the finger at the victim group, her ethnic group, the Jewish Committee, and even all Jews eventually turn against each other. What extraordinary moral courage this requires! Although she is not the kind of numb scholar who is immersed in her major, nor the kind of smart scholar who keeps pace with the times, she is a scholar who goes against the current. She went against the tide and rebelled against her time, because she was convinced that her time was extremely dark.
People in the dark ages first wrote about the human condition under totalitarianism.
Totalitarianism: Mass Movement, Organization, Propaganda and Terror
The most unforgettable experience of people in the 20th century was their life under totalitarian rule. Totalitarianism, written by Arendt in 1949, systematically described this human situation for the first time, and made a deep theoretical summary through the comparative study of traditional society. This book is divided into three parts: the first part is "anti-Semitism", the second part is "imperialism", and the third part is
The word "totalitarianism" was not invented by Arendt, but was widely used in Europe and America in the 1940s and 1950s. However, Arendt gave it a clear definition and connotation in his works. The totalitarian movement is a mass movement. "Mass" and "movement" are two important concepts in Arendt's totalitarian theory. In her book, she distinguishes between "the masses" and "the mob". Mobs are people who broke away from class society in the19th century. The masses are the product of the disintegration of class society and do not have the "class foundation" like mobs. They reflect the interests of "all the people" and are actually a group of atomized people. The totalitarian movement is essentially a mass organization composed of these isolated individuals. One of its most remarkable external characteristics is that individual members must be complete, unlimited, unconditional and loyal as always. Loyalty is the psychological basis of totalitarian rule. Leaders and elites of totalitarian movements must constantly maintain the loyalty of the masses in order to stimulate their dedication in the movement. They want the masses to know that they exist in this world and occupy a place just because they belong to a movement and are members of a political party. They can only "benefit from the tasks entrusted to them by their party." Exercise, continuous exercise, its practical goal is to introduce as many people as possible and organize them. Only in this way can we maintain ourselves.
When talking about totalitarian movement, Arendt emphasized the role of propaganda and organization. The reason why totalitarian propaganda needs to be repeated among the masses is that its ideological content is fictional, non-factual and non-empirical; But there is no doubt that some concepts can produce long-term invariance through logical reasoning, which can also be called "thoroughness". Arendt believes that due to the lack of free communication space, the public has lost the sense of reality provided by common sense. Totalitarian propaganda only uses the compulsion of logical deduction to provide them with another substitute for reality, "science", which has the power of terror. If in totalitarian countries, propaganda needs to interact with terror, then in places where totalitarianism has absolute control, propaganda is replaced by indoctrination.
The second edition of The Origin of Totalitarianism was published in 1958. Arentega wrote a chapter on The Origin of Totalitarianism, which replaced the "conclusion" part of the first edition. She wrote: "Totalitarianism is a modern form of tyranny, a lawless form of management, trying to belong to only one person. On the one hand, they abuse their power, are not bound by law, obey the interests of the rulers and are hostile to the interests of the ruled; On the other hand, fear becomes the principle of action. Rulers are afraid of people, and people are afraid of rulers. These are all signs of tyranny in all our traditions. " In her book, she distinguishes totalitarianism as a new national form from various forms of autocratic politics, dictatorship and tyranny in history, and analyzes its "modernity" characteristics. In the last chapter, she pointed out that apart from the unitary structure of totalitarian state, a prominent phenomenon is the coexistence of political parties and the state, which is completely lacking in system. Totalitarian rule flouts all written laws, even its own laws, and develops into a complete dictatorship. This is a police country. In such a country, living people are forcibly locked in the iron cage of terror, thus eliminating the space for behavior. Without this space, it is impossible to obtain a realistic state of freedom. As a result of totalitarian rule, people not only lost their freedom, but even stifled their desire for freedom and their spontaneity and creativity in politics and even in all fields. The whole society is doing nothing.
"Totalitarianism attempts to conquer and rule the world, which is the most destructive road among all desperate situations." Arendt was deeply hurt by totalitarianism, so he tried his best to expose totalitarianism and oppose "herd optimism" It can be considered that ideology and terror are not only the starting point of her academic path, but also the intersection of her lifelong thoughts. Later, she talked about revolution, * * * and responsibility ethics. These are closely related to this, and can also be regarded as an extension of different dimensions of totalitarianism.
Mediocre evil
1 960 may1day, fugitive Nazi adolf eichmann, who played an important role in the Jewish holocaust, was kidnapped by Israeli agents in Argentina and then brought back to Israel. The following April 1 1 to February 15, he was tried in Jerusalem and sentenced to be hanged. Arendt witnessed the whole process of the trial as a reporter for The Origin of Totalitarianism. According to relevant materials, he wrote The New Yorker, which was published continuously in magazines, causing an uproar.
Arendt's article has been widely misunderstood and attacked, mainly in two places: one is to put forward the concept of "the evil of mediocrity", not "Eichmann in Jerusalem: an article"
In Arendt's eyes, Eichmann is not a demon, and even today he is a "normal person". In the Third Reich, he was a law-abiding citizen and a good party member. Of course, there is no reason to think that you are guilty. He admitted that he was not the organizer of extinction. He was responsible for coordinating and managing the sending of Jews to death camps, but only carried out "top-down orders" and faithfully performed his duties. Allen wrote: "Judging from our legal system and our moral standards, this normality is even more creepy than putting all cruel acts together." She thinks Eichmann is a "bureaucratic killer", so she agrees with the court's decision. But at the same time, it is pointed out that Eichmann is not a vicious criminal, but a person who lacks thinking and has no ability to distinguish right from wrong. Here, she associated criminals with "mediocrity" and said, "Eichmann is neither sinister nor fierce, nor is he as determined as Richard III to pretend to be a villain". I'm afraid there is no other motivation except being very enthusiastic about my promotion. This enthusiasm itself is by no means a crime. In layman's terms, he has no idea what he is doing. Because he lacks imagination. He is not stupid, but he has no idea at all. This is by no means the same as stupidity, but it is the factor that makes him one of the biggest criminals of his time. This is mediocrity. In fact, apart from reality and blindness, we can exert all the evil instincts lurking in human beings and show their great energy. This is the lesson we learned in Jerusalem. "
Arendt emphasized that "mediocre evil can destroy the whole world", which essentially emphasized the significance of thinking in political action. This is the result of her in-depth thinking about the mass problem, which is the basis of totalitarian movement. In the totalitarian movement, why does everyone follow a dictator like Hitler? Why can an authoritarian regime like Nazism get the support of a vulgar and superficial person like Eichmann? In Arendt's view, the fundamental reason lies in the lack of critical thinking in the whole society.
There is also the problem of collective non-resistance. Arendt found that the Jewish Committee provided an "expulsion list", which contributed to the theme of Nazi genocide and was deliberately avoided in the trial. She pointed out that almost all Jewish leaders cooperated with the Nazis in some way and for some reason, without exception. Without their active cooperation, the planned Jewish massacre could not have reached the scale that happened later. In the report, Arendt also listed and analyzed the different reactions of European countries after Germany issued the order to expel Jews. Among them, Denmark, Bulgaria and Italy have no anti-Semitism; Denmark also publicly expressed its opposition, helped hide and save Jews, and once transported 59 19 Jews to Sweden. On the contrary, Romanian citizens were generally anti-Semitic, and even massacred Jews in the form of spontaneous slaughter, so that the SS had to intervene in order to slaughter in a more civilized way. Arendt believes that Romania is not only a murderous country, but also a degenerate country. She pointed out that the Jewish Committee did not choose between "helping Jews move" and "helping Nazis expel them", which was also a "bad deed". There is no individual resistance and there is no collective resistance. As for the overall moral collapse caused by the Nazis in European society, not only Germany, but almost all European countries are not only persecutors, but also victims. She thinks that the content provided by the Jerusalem trial is impactful.
Whose crime? For the reflection of a nation's unprecedented catastrophe, Arendt's enlightenment here is that we must distinguish between legal crimes and political and moral responsibilities. We should not only pursue historical responsibility from the political system, but also individual and collective responsibility from the aspects of humanity and morality. The so-called historical introspection is the responsibility of introspection. Just like investigating * * * for guilt, it is untenable to think that * * * is innocent.
Citizen participation
1963, Arendt's The Origin of Totalitarianism was published. Karl jaspers believes that this book is the product of the author's life experience in the United States, and its theme is political freedom and the courage to pursue human dignity. And the evaluation is no less than "On Revolution". Arendt believes that the revolutionary spirit has been lost, and she regards it as a tragedy of modern people, thus giving a positive explanation, linking the revolution with * * * and reshaping the revolutionary spirit. It is really interesting to compare the political ideal and passion of an intellectual persecuted by totalitarian rule with the argument that China intellectuals "bid farewell to revolution" in the post-Cultural Revolution era.
In the book, Arendt focuses on the French Revolution and the American Revolution. She believes that both revolutions attached great importance to the freedom and welfare of the public, but the American revolution did not restrict the individual rights of citizens like the French revolution. Its successful experience shows that revolution can only make power in the hands of the people. She pointed out that the United States does have its particularity, so it can avoid the influence of totalitarianism only because it has no national unity based on historical and cultural unity. In addition, there has never been a cohesive class structure like the European society in the19th century. As an immigrant country, it is a mass society. However, it is also true that American and European civilizations are of the same origin. In Arendt's view, revolution and constitution-making are generally two different stages in the revolutionary process. One of the characteristics of the American revolution is that it is not the result of a sudden violent movement, but is always initiated, promoted and maintained by the general consultation and mutual contract of many participants. Arendt said, "The purpose of revolution is to create freedom." The formulation and regular revision of the American Constitution is to construct and expand the free space and institutionalize freedom. It is advocated that constitutional construction should not only consider the establishment of order and procedure, but also exile the spirit of freedom and public participation; On the contrary, Arendt advocates replacing the political party system and representative system with "parliamentary system" and establishing a political utopia close to "consultative country", which is mainly based on public participation and the creation of public space. She believes that the essential significance of American constitutional system is not to protect citizens' freedom, but to create freedom that enables people to organize politically and establish a new power system: first, it truly embodies the principle that "power belongs to the people" rather than any political party; Second, the federal constitutional system is not a form of sovereign state, which guarantees the existence of no sovereign power; Third, all political bodies should be equal and bound by each other, not equal to each other and replace or merge; Four. Nation is neither the basis of political system nor the homogeneity of history and origin. In Arendt's view, the founders of the United States did take Rome's * * * and system as the earliest model when they founded it. However, the United States of America was founded not to rebuild Rome, but to create a new Rome, which embodies an innovative spirit that continues the European tradition and takes political freedom as the first priority.
In the early 1950s, McCarthyism appeared in the United States, persecuting producers and intellectuals with different political views, and Arendt himself suffered greatly. However, this crazy "unification" did not last long and was quickly corrected. Arendt is convinced that the most important reason is that the United States has various liberal systems with the federal constitution as the core.
It is another anthology published by Arendt in 1972, including three papers and an interview. These works witnessed the Vietnam War in 1960s, the student riots, the black civil rights movement and the worldwide turmoil led by the United States in the early 1970s, and embodied Arendt's political insight. Among them, the citizen participation emphasized in The Origin of Totalitarianism is of great practical significance for protecting America and promoting its healthy development.
In June, 197 1, * * and Crisis disclosed the confidential documents instructed by Secretary of Defense robert mcnamara, including the record of the decision-making process of the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War, which was then called the "Pentagon Document Case". The contents of these documents have exposed many problems related to cheating in the political field. Arendt pointed out that facts are fragile, and lies, especially those from the government, are more likely to succeed. She said, "Because liars have a great advantage, that is, they know in advance what the audience wants or expects to hear, so lies are usually more credible and rational than reality." Some of these lies are easily exposed by facts, but some types of lies can completely obliterate the truth of human existence, thus infringing and damaging human freedom. She pointed out that there are two related ways to lie, one is propaganda, such as the Vietnam War; The other is done by experts and political think tanks. From the beginning, it has the nature of self-deception, because decision makers live in what Arendt calls a "de-factual world". But she was not particularly depressed by the government's deception, because she had a positive attitude towards the public services of news organizations that had been in a free state in the United States. Even if government documents have a strict confidentiality classification system, it is hard not to be known to the American people. In addition, there is something in the nature of the American people that resists the power of destroying freedom, which is one of her hopes to defeat the lies of the government.
Arendt believes that civil disobedience is first and foremost an American phenomenon, because it stems from the moral responsibility of citizens to the law in the contract society. She distinguished between civil disobedience and conscientious resistance. Civil disobedience is a collective and open social movement, which aims to challenge the legitimacy of political authority, while conscientious objection is only an individual behavior. People who take part in civil disobedience are all members of organized groups. Because of the consistency of some viewpoints, they acted together and took a stand against the government. Of course, this requires the constitution to guarantee basic human rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of procession and freedom of strike. In other words, even if they belong to a society based on consent, this consent must belong to the right of disagreement. The idea she provided is a "tradition of contract theory". The government must get the consent of the people. If the government violates the entrustment, the people have the right to disobey. Although civil disobedience may turn into violence, which is destructive to the United States, Arendt still encourages the American government to consider bringing civil disobedience into the legal system, because she believes that it is a means for a free country to confidently protect human freedom in view of the reduction of citizen participation and various forms of voluntary associations in society.
In On Revolution, Arendt divided power, authority, strength and violence. She opposes violence and power, believing that violence can only lead to destruction, but can't create power, and once it starts, it can't be controlled. Therefore, the most likely outcome of violence is "a more violent world". In her view, power is the right to respect human diversity and guarantee political freedom. When a group or government finds that power is being lost, it is easy to try to maintain control of power through violence. She thinks this is impossible, because when violence happens, power is obviously in danger. Arendt's discussion of violence is mostly limited to the theoretical premise of contractual elected government. She over-rationalized power, ignoring not only the legal violence implied by power, but also the ever-changing relationship between different political forces in a specific historical situation. Here, probably because he caught a glimpse of the ominous shadow of the masses in the totalitarian movement in the first half of the 20th century in the student movement of 1968.
Waiting for enlightenment
Allen wrote a novel called The New York Times. In the so-called dark age, she experienced the 20th century when totalitarianism and bureaucracy dominated. According to her, it is symbolic at the same time and has taken on a broader meaning. Among them, she wrote many poets, writers and philosophers from Lessing to her contemporaries, including revolutionaries like Luxembourg, and provided a pedigree of people in the spiritual field. It is a miracle that these people, as "representatives of the times", were almost free from its control and influence when the times involved people in slaughter, chaos, hunger, injustice and despair.
As a thinker of the times, Arendt is undoubtedly one of the outstanding members. If she is a professional hobby, she should devote herself to philosophical research; In fact, until her death, she still had serious philosophical thinking. Her last unfinished book was about violence. She claimed that her main activity was thinking, not acting. In the days of struggle, she did not become a revolutionary or a member of the resistance movement. However, her thinking has to be interrupted again and again by realistic political problems, the most urgent problem of human survival. This kind of thinking is different from ordinary scholars in that it does not serve the purpose of knowledge, but is closely related to the world in which it actually lives and is a search for the meaning of existence. Arendt tried to break the reality through thinking, which mainly came from the protection of the system to prevent human beings from making false and evil behaviors, and opened up a broad public space. This idea can only be criticized and resisted. In "People in the Dark Ages", she admits: "In fact, it is easier to act than to think under authoritarian conditions." For the free survival of mankind, she chose the most isolated, tenacious and difficult job for herself: thinking.
At the end of the preface to Spiritual Life, Arendt expressed her belief in this way: "Even in dark times, we have the right to expect a kind of light, which may not come from theories and concepts, but more from an uncertain, flickering and often faint light. This light comes from some men and women, from their lives and work. They will ignite in almost all cases and scatter light to the whole range of their life on earth. Because we have been used to dark eyes for a long time, we can hardly tell people whether those lights are candlelight or blazing sunshine. " Arendt loves the world. She and her works are such a warm light, which makes us feel the existence of humanity and truth in the dark and is deeply encouraged.