Hannah Arendt coined the term "banality of evil" to describe Adolf

[KlatooBNikto]

Eichmann. When I look at Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld that term comes alive again because without the vast military power of the U.S. these men command, no one would pay them any attention; they look like accountants.

[laura888]

1. you are so right! n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Chimpy does that same thing with his mouth that Eichmann did...

I remember the pictures of him when he was on trial in Israel.
I have seen pictures of Chimpy where you can see it better...

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

3. Well the term applied to Eichmann in the context that he had no ill

intentions toward the Jews and had once dated a Jewish woman and that he was interested only in status, not in ideology. So, in the context in which Arendt coined and used the term it would more appropriately apply to those AROUND Bush, Cheney and Rummy....the people MAKING THE GRADE because of these madmen.

[TahitiNut]

6. I'd say that's the same with the Bush/Cheney cabal.

I don't think these people care about anything except what "belongs" to them - it's about wealth and power. I don't think Bush or Cheney personally hate gays, blacks, women, or any other minority. I think they use the bigotry of others to gain wealth and power for themselves. If they hate anyone, they hate poor people ... particularly poor people who aren't licking their boots. They don't even like other wealthy people who aren't serving their narrow, greedy interests. They're sociopaths.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

7. But the same COULD be said for Hitler. Germany had huge

economic doldrums and the Jews were a convenient focus. I guess the greater point that I am making is that the corollary to Eichmann fits less to the powerbrokers whose intent for control and imperialism equals that of Hitler (i.e. Bush, Cheney, Rummy) than to those that propelled these madmen into office...we've got lots of little Eichmanns running around. The Eichmanns of the world are those whose selfish interests are placated by enabling the malicious.

[kcwayne]

4. Except I expect accountants to be able to add, subtract, and divide

Bush looks like Goober on the Andy Griffith Show, and talks like a total moron. It is inexplicable to me that anyone can listen to him and think for one second that there is anything going in between his ears.

[KlatooBNikto]

5. Sorry, you got me there!

[DoBotherMe]

8. As an aside, Strauss (father of neocons) was in love w/Arendt

Hannah Arendt
If the brilliant and beautiful Hannah Arendt, the German-Jewish intellectual who famously described the “banality of evil” at work in Nazi Germany, had not spurned a young suitor named Leo Strauss, would Americans be killing and dying in Iraq? Not only did Arendt reject Strauss’ affections, she panned his ideas. According to Arendt’s biographer, she told the embittered Strauss that a political party advocating his views could have no place for a Jew like him. Strauss bore the wound of her words for decades. Even today, his followers, the Straussians, despise Arendt. Could her rejection have been the stirring of a butterfly’s wings that led to the inevitable desert storm?

http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/49/articles/leo_strauss/noflash.html

[KlatooBNikto]

9. Very interesting. I was not aware of this aspect of Strauss' life. Or for

that matter, Arendt's life.While she lucked out, many others did not, because of the influence Strauss has had on the Neocons.

[KlatooBNikto]

10. After reading the link in your post, I wondered how the unrequited

love in Strauss' life turned him into such an embittered man.It got to the point that some of his writings, especially his embrace of the concept of Superman,resemble the worst ravings of Hitler in Mein Kampf.