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Banality of Evil
What is the relationship between the banality of evil and the ordinariness of goodness?
Justas the 'banality of evil' was committed by apparently ' regular' ordinary' people who proceeded with the premise that their actions were acceptable based on their indoctrinations or cultural teachings (as e.g. By the third Reich) and, therefore, 'evil' lost its maliciousness and became ordinary, so too, as per David Blumenthal (1999), goodness is also normalized and becomes banal through systems of social hierarchy, education, and childhood discipline that shape both good and evil attitudes and actions.
2.How do both torturers and the tortured come to terms with their circumstances? Are their similarities between these processes?
Torture not only causes pain to the body but can also cause associated damage and corruption to the psyche. The torturer, on the other hand, may not experience physical pain but will certainly experience the same damage to his psyche.
Torture induces in the victim feelings of shame, lack of self,...
Research also shows that certain critical faculties of the brain may shut down during torture, and the individual is more susceptible to brainwashing or indoctrination. His situation seems normal to him and he becomes more used to it, accepting it as the banality of his or her existence.
The act of torture to the perpetrator induces a similar lack of self. Initially, a possibly gentle individual who was indoctrinated by his society to do certain acts, and finding the initial cruel acts difficult to do, the torturer may soon become immune to his situation and resilient to his activities. His activities, in effect, convert him into a psychopath. The same gray cell regions of his brain shut down, and he, to, comes to terms with his circumstances rationalizing, if not condoning the consequences of his actions that may have been indoctrinated into him, too, by his or her environment. The awfulness of his acts soon become banal to him and become part of the ordinariness of his existence.
3. Does the UN human rights…
References
Blumenthal, D.R. (1999) The Banality of Good and Evil
Moral Lessons from the Shoah and Jewish Tradition, NY: Pegassus.
Conroy, John, Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People: The Dynamics of Torture, Alfred A. Knopf, 2000.
Hrea.org. The United Nations Human Rights System
http://www.hrea.org/index.php?base_id=163
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