Glamour Of Evil And Banality Of Evil

There is a long-running Catholic doctrine about the “glamor of evil.” In studying a Nazi bureacrat Adolf Eichmann, Hannah Arendt initiated the doctrine of “the banality of evil.”

I do not see why either of the parties is right. Hitler was evil and glamorous; Eichmann was evil and banal. The two appeared to work together very well.

There is now a frequent claim that positive thinking is good and that negative thinking is bad. I do not see the reason to side with one or the other. However positive you are, if rainforest has been cut down then it has been cut down. A positive thinker will deny that there is a problem. A negative thinker will decide that the problem is too much for us to solve. Both would be dead wrong.

The real solution is real thinking. It is facing reality and doing what we can to correct it. It is realizing that we have a problem, and it is doing what we can to solve the problem. Neither positive nor negative thinking will achieve that outcome. Real thinking will.

Some evil people will be glamorous; some evil people will be banal. Same is the case with positive and negative thinking. The solution is not encouraging either positive or negative thinking. The solution is encouraging real thinking. The result will be humanity solving its problems and doing what they can to making reality worthy of positive outlook.