Hannah Arendt coined the term “banality of evil” while covering the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem in 1961. She noted that Eichmann was not the cartoonish villain one expected, given the accusations against him. Instead, he appeared to be a normal man who performed the tasks assigned to him, without having any ideological or emotional attachment to them. This led Arendt to argue that evil could be the result of the work of ordinary people who were not inherently malicious.
Her formulation turned out to be useful to generations of evil people who used this framework to accuse ordinary Americans of being evil, for the crime of living their lives as white people. That was probably why the line became so popular, but that does not strip it of its truth value. Human systems are capable of turning the ordinary acts of the people in the system toward evil ends, even though the people themselves may not be evil in the ordinary way we think of it.
This is the subtext to the broad indictment of managerialism. The fascists, understood through the lens of managerialism, created a ruthless machine, animated by ideology, that dehumanized their society. The Soviets were close behind in creating a communist machine that forced everyone into the moral framework of the ideology. Those who could not fit into the ideology were destroyed. This is what made fascism and communism evil. They mechanized and normalized brutality.
Of course, that view of fascism and communism was from the perspective of people on the cusp of post-liberalism. The paleocons, sensing that America was succumbing to the same managerial forces as Europe, were warning about what lies ahead for managerialism as an organizing political order. They were wrong in their analysis, as America ceased to be a liberal society in the 19th century. Progressivism, the unique American ideology, was filling the void in the 20th century.
This turned out to be the great innovation of progressivism. It appropriated the language and forms of liberalism in order to present itself as the antithesis of ideology. It was the broad conclusion of reason. Progressivism, repackaged as liberalism in the Cold War, was not about how the world ought to be, but about how the world would be if only people allowed it to be so. Man, liberated from superstition and ignorance, would naturally settle into liberal democracy.
The result, however, was what the paleos predicted. The managerial revolution that began in the first quarter of the 20th century got going for the same reason it got going in communist and fascist societies. Ideology is not enough. It needs a practical application that takes the moral claims and turns them into an ethical system administered by a priestly class. The role of the priest in a Christian society is filled by the manager in an ideological society.
It is why America is awash of moralizing. Every politician eventually turns himself in an Old Testament prophet, warning that we must comply with the tides of history or face certain destruction. Every product is sold as a sacrament. Buy this widget in order to tell the world you are a righteous man. Middle managers in corporations are sent off to leadership class, so they can properly evangelize to their cubicle jockeys. The most trivial things are attached to great moral crusades.
This brings us back to Arendt’s observations about Eichmann. The crimes against civilized life we have observed over the last years were done by people, who like Eichmann, did not present themselves as evil. They could not imagine themselves as evil because they were on the right side of history. The proof of that is everyone they know is on the same side and everyone they know is a good person striving to make the world a better place.
It is this system of thought that made Joe Biden president. He was the smiling face of a machine that rewarded affable, useful dullards, as long as they served the needs of the system, which was the endless hunt for enemies of the system. The peak of the woke terror produced President Joe Biden, the guy who was supposed to normalize the terror by making ordinary people accept it as normal. How can “Working Class Joe” be a bad guy when he is always telling jokes and smiling?
It is why it is right to think about Joe Biden as the Eichmann of woke. Just as Eichmann and many men like him were the banal face of the underlying evil of the system, Joe Biden was the avuncular, jovial face of the American managerial system. He is not unique, but typical, the good example of the type that has come to dominate the political class, which is the fig leaf for the managerial class. The smiling, backslapping pol is what stands between the citizen and the machine.
Stripped of the charming rogues and pitchmen, the evil of the machinery is made plain and therefore easy to resist. That is the part of Arendt’s observations about Eichmann that applies to us now. Even if neither man can be accused of evil on the individual basis, their talents were put to use by an evil system. Even if one can show that their intent was not evil, it does not matter. They helped normalize evil and that is arguably worse than the evil itself.
It is tempting to think this is an inappropriate comparison, given the death sentence that has been handed to Biden. In 1961, however, when Eichmann was given his death sentence, the system which he served was long gone and the damage it wrought was gone with it. Joe Biden is still causing damage. His cancer diagnosis is now removing the last bits of trust in the system. The life of Joe Biden and now his looming death, has been in service to the destruction of social trust.
It was hard to hate men like Eichmann, even after their actions had been universally condemned, because they were not obviously evil men. That was always the point of Joe Biden and why the managerial class loved him. He was a simpleton and braggard, but he would ruthlessly execute his instructions and do so in a way that was hard for the people to hate. He normalized evil by making it feel like the way things were done and had to be done. Joe Biden is the banality of evil.
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“accuse ordinary Americans of being evil, for the crime of living their lives as white people”
It’s getting harder and harder to not end up tied to a stake in the center of town with kindling around your feet and Elizabeth Warren holding a torch. The Reign of Terror ended when your average Frenchman looked at the guillotine and said, that could be me next.
I think you are underestimating what a scumbag Joe Biden is. His own daughter wrote in her diary that her father forced her to take “inappropriate showers” with him. That, along with the way he acted around little girls (sniffing their hair and the creepy touching), makes me think the guy is a pedo.
Hunter had Joe’s name in his phone as “Pedo Peter.” There is little doubt about it.
So getting back to evil, what does that say about the people who work for or defend the guy? Everybody knows at this point. These types only ever rise to power when society itself has become so debased. How many major corporations break the rules every day, some good person whistle blows, and then has their life ruined? The system itself has transformed into this, not saying it was ever perfect, but at this point its pure evil.
Longtime establishment stooge Megan McArdle posted on X about the obvious hiring discrimination against whites that has taken place and why it happened. Halfway through the thread she says she talked to a law partner about why this happened and the explanation was that they figured it was impossible to get sued. She goes on to add suing in many fields like academia or non profits would have been career suicide. They have become so insular no one will dare to use the law to oppose them.
https://x.com/asymmetricinfo/status/1924515586278572406
I remember a story that went around about how he would swim in his pool naked in front of female secret service. I’m inclined to believe it because it fits with the rest of his persona. It didn’t get any traction. But then Tara Reade didn’t really either. If you asked your average baizuo about her, they’d say “Who? The actress?” Or accuse her of being a Russian plant, since that was the only place she could go to escape the retribution. (I am also inclined to believe Ms. Reade, because of her mom on CSPAN back in the day).
Let’s not forget that Biden hooked up with Jill when she was married to some other dude who was contributing to his campaign. She became a campaign volunteer, and Biden started fucking her while her then-husband was donating money. About as sleazy as it gets…
Joe Biden was far more evil in his personal life than Eichmann ever was. The affabale bumbling idiot that was his public face was only a mask. Joe was, and will be until the devil comes to take him, a Robber Baron at heart, whoring himself out for money and power. He bet on the ideologues in his party and double crossed the other Robber Baron in Hilary Clinton, and the ideologues used him just as much as he used them.
This tells it perfectly
so few people – today – recognize evil. i suspect many/most of them don’t even believe it exists.
human nature is amoral; it lies in primordial survival instincts. genocide is a feature, not a flaw.
It’s so easy a caveman can do it. Take almost any ordinary schlub and give him “status”, make him “important”, and you can get him to do almost anything.
I still remember after Brandon “won” the election and started appointing people, one shitlib commentator gushed about how “normal” the people were compared to the meanies that Trump hired (of course, by 2020, the people in the White House were third-rate at best, and they all were working to destroy Trump). The normal people that this person was talking about, of course, were people like Mayorkas and Blinken. Total freaks. And long after Joe Biden is dead, hopefully soon, judged by God and sent to his rightful place, these freaks will still be out there, and most importantly, so will… Read more »
One thought on managerialism…it excels at breaking processes down so each step is done most efficiently by a specialist. In this context that also removes “total” responsibility for outcome from individuals. “I just processed transit manifests and scheduled trains”–that these trains ended up at Auschwitz or Sobibor was not that individuals responsibility. Gas chambers, run minimally by SS staff evolved because the Einsatzgruppen (the one group not removed from the actual business of killing), despite the number of certified sociopaths, were effectively losing their minds. Our modern, massive bureaucracies operate the same way…most completely removed from the havoc they create.
This cuts Biden too much slack. That speech with the red backdrop and the marines standing there, he sure looked like an eager participant. “Our patience is wearing thin.” I don’t know if that was scripted or not, but he definitely put some extra emphasis on it. Not just some guy reading a line. He meant it. Perhaps these things were part of what spooked some of the overlords who decided to back Trump.
Say what you want about banana republics, but Latin Americans at least stage honest coups: men with guns, explosions, gaudy uniforms, a few corpses in the street, the new caudillo on the balcony etc.
It would never occur to them to fix an election AND get insanely self-righteous about gainsayers AND install a dementia-addled Mr Magoo as el presidente AND acclaim him as Pericles reborn while he slurs and phases in and out of consciousness.
It is indescribably putrid.
Excellent essay, Z. I’ve believed for quite some time that the U.S. is a zealous, ideological empire, but its ideological zealotry is cloaked by the liberal language of its founding and Constitution. Your point about politicians running cover for “The System” by giving it a smiling, happy face was true in other ideological systems as well, like the USSR. Not for nothing did many Soviets look fondly on “Uncle Joe” Stalin, so it’s interesting that we had our own “Uncle Joe.” Of course, when comparing the two “Uncle Joes,” I am reminded of Marx’s pity observation that history repeats itself… Read more »
I look forward to the day when someone on our side is vindictive enough to actually seek justice as the jews did with dullards like Eichman.
Our managers are never held accountable for any of the lies and law breaking they have done.
Biden was a known liar who got promoted to be the President.
We are left depending on morons and cross eyed incompetents to tell us there is nothing to see here folks. MAGA baby.