Arendt, Iran and The New Banality of Evil - It's a Time To Pray

Hannah Arendt was a German Jewess born in the early 1900s who's life work as a political philosopher has been well chronicled [1].   In her controversial book entitled "Eichman in Jerusalem - A Report on the Banality of Evil,"  Arendt coins this phrase that has been often quoted and often misinterpreted.

The basic premise of her analysis of Eichmann as the leader of the Nazi's "final solution" of exterminating the Jewish race was that for Eichmann it wasn't a matter of deep hatred for Jews nor an existential evil that motivated him.  As she watched the Eichmann trial unfold, Arendt concluded that it was a lack of deep-seated intellectual reflectiveness over Hitler's delusional Judeophobic propaganda that was at the core of his actions.  Eichmann was just simply following the Nazi "party line" without thought, without feeling in carrying out his quest.  Whether one agrees with Arendt's assertion or not, the precedence she set by coining the phrase "The Banality of Evil" was a seminal one.

Fast forward nearly 50 years from the Eichmann trial to the year 2011 and we find ourselves in a new era, or should I say ever-continuing era, of delusional Judeophobia and Jew-hating. Amongst this era's loudest voices is the one emanating from due east of Jerusalem in Iran.  We have all heard time and again the now repetitive foments of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, his calls to "wipe Israel off the map" and his mantra of holocaust denial.  To Ahmadinejad and the Mullahs of Tehran, Israel and its Western partners are the cause of all the world's ills.  His latest delusional rant blaming Western Europe for "stealing the clouds" in order to create drought in his beloved Iran is continued evidence of his progressive slide into the abyss of his own psychotic mind. [2]

But what of the rest of us - leaders, politicians, and the masses of the civilized world?  How do we assess the ravings of a lunatic?

The definition of "banal" and its use in the context of our understanding of modern evil is the key that unlocks the answer to this seemingly innocuous question.  Similar to what occurred prior to World War II, our world is distracted, facing a number of issues that certainly afford our every attention: economic crises, political and civil unrest, active conflagrations, natural and environmental disasters and, for good measure, the wedding of a King-to-be.  The fact that one lunatic despot continues a musical chime of idiocy becomes banal: defined as "trite, hackneyed, commonplace, devoid of freshness or originality."   In modern language: "it ain't no big deal."

The masses have become mesmerized into a trance-like numbness that allows us to no longer define evil as such - we laugh it off or just stop paying attention at all.  Of course, only a few well-positioned political elite knew the dangers of the Hitler-led Third Reich prior to WW2.  The rest of the world was not inundated with his vitriol day in and day out and the occasional newsreel was not as impactful as today's plethora of information through television and the internet.  So who can blame the world's masses for the holocaust that followed?

Unlike Nazi Germany, whose populace for the most part bought the party rhetoric hook, line and sinker - it is not the people of Iran that have grown to "accept" the vision of their "duly elected" leader and his Mullah puppeteers.   The majority of Iranians know full well the mess that filled the void when the Shah was evicted from Persian society.

Today, however, we have a whole new group of people who have been duped into submission by the Banality of this new Evil - THE ENTIRE PLANET.   Oh, we see the United Nations, emasculated as it might be, and a few of its member nations, threaten Iran with sanctions and even carry out some of them.  While quite harmless and essentially trivial to the leaders of Iran, the sanctions are not even a fly in the holy ointment of their Messianic fervor.

So back to the question at hand: what of this raving lunatic and the regime that he fronts for?  Their march towards completely tipping the scales of power in an already imbalanced and highly volatile region continues daily without even a blip on the Richter Scale of concern for the rest of the world.  After all, it seems as if it is only those "damn Jews" that these looney-tunes hate.  The Jews are the only ones sounding the alarm.  "It's Israel's problem - not ours.  Let them deal with it."  Oh, really?  Have we become so denervated to any sense of impending doom...so extinguished by repetition or whimsicality to even care?  I fear the answer is a clear and resounding YES!!

The world is nearing the point of no return - or should I say KNOW return - as we approach the nuclear age of The Islamic Republic of Iran.  Unlike the the days prior to Hitler's holocaust, the whole world KNOWS it is coming.  And, really, unless we restructure both our thinking AND feeling processes, understand the basic premise of Hannah Arendt's treatise on Adolf Eichmann and truly, deeply reflect over what this will really mean for the Middle East, for Israel and for the ENTIRE WORLD, we will be sorry for sure.   As we have over the deaths of 6 million Jews and many million non-Jews - I fear the same fate will unravel and we will weep in retrospective horror and shame at its consequences.

So, this is a choice we all have to make.  One can stay mesmerized and numb in preparation for the next holocaust.  Or, one can sound the trumpet and sound it continually.  I choose the latter.  I will blow it as often and as hard as I possibly can - while their is breath in me.

In 600 BCE, after his Jewish brethren were completely blind-sided by the Babylonians who stormed the nation, destroyed the Holy City, murdered thousands and exiled an entire people, the Prophet Jeremiah whaled at the myopia that led his people to such a fate.  Jeremiah bemoaned their sin and callousness toward evil as the cause of this horrific event in Jewish history:

Jer. 4:19-21

O my soul, my soul.

I am pained in my very heart.

My heart makes a noise in me;

I cannot hold my peace,

Because you have heard, O my soul,
 The sound of the trumpet,

The alarm of war. 

    

 Destruction upon destruction is cried,
 For the whole land is plundered.
 Suddenly my tents are plundered,
 And my curtains in a moment. 

 How long will I see the standard,
 And hear the sound of the trumpet?

From the Middle East Media Research Institute:  "An article posted April 24, 2011 on Gerdab, the website of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), envisions the day after Iran's first nuclear test. The article states that Iran's first controlled nuclear explosion will not disrupt the daily lives of Iranians, but will only boost their national pride. However, it says, in the Arab world, in the West and in Israel, it will sow a sense of fear mingled with respect for Iran's achievement. The article makes satirical comments on Iran's charged relations with the Arabs and with the West.

The following are excerpts from the article:[3]

"The day after Iran's first nuclear test will be an ordinary day for us Iranians. But many of us will have a new gleam in our eyes.
"It's a fine day. The hour is 7:00 AM. The sun is not yet fully up, but everything is already clear. Many countries in the northern hemisphere are starting their day. It's the first dawn after Iran's nuclear test. It's an ordinary day.
"Yesterday, an underground nuclear explosion took place, probably [somewhere] in the deserts of central Iran, where the Americans and some of the [other] Western countries once wanted to bury their nuclear waste. The blast was not so powerful as to cause much damage to the region, but not so weak as to cause the Iranian nuclear scientists any problem in their experiment.
"It's an ordinary day, and just like on any [other] day when there is news from Iran – which is 90% of year – we see reports on the foreign news websites, and they read as follows:   
"Reuters: 'Iran Detonates Its Nuclear Bomb.'
"CNN: 'Iran Detonates Nuclear Bomb.'
"Al-Jazeera: 'Iran Has Tested Its Second Nuclear Bomb.'
"Al-'Arabia: 'A Shi'ite Nuclear Bomb Has Gone Off.'
"Yahoo News: "Nuclear Explosion in Iran."
"The Jerusalem Post: 'The Mullahs Have Obtained Nuclear Weapons.'
"The Washington Post: 'Nuclear Explosion in Iran; Shock and Anxiety in Tel Aviv.'
"The local [Iranian press] will also shower this achievement by the Hidden Imam and the Leader [Khamenei] with words of praise, as follows:
"Kayhan: 'Iran Has Tested Its First Nuclear Bomb.'
"Jomhouri-ye Eslami: 'Iran Carries Out Successful Nuclear Test.'
"Iran [a popular pro-Ahmadinejad daily]: 'On President's Orders, Iran Tests All-Iranian Nuclear Bomb.'
"Ettelaat: 'Iran Detonates Long-Awaited Nuclear Bomb'...
"It will be a news storm, but it will not disrupt normal [daily] life in Iran. Employees will come to work and punch the clock on time, or [at most] a little late. Bakers will not bake unsubsidized bread. Broadband Internet will function as usual, and even this storm will not make it any cheaper, nor will it cause [Iranian] TV to rethink its policy on the airing of foreign programs.
"The day after Iran's first nuclear test will be an ordinary day for us Iranians, but many of us will have a new gleam in our eyes – a gleam of national pride and might.
"[Koran 8:60:] 'And prepare against them what force you can and horses tied at the frontier, to frighten thereby the enemy of Allah and your enemy'"

So, I ask the question: will we be an accomplice in this new and modern Eichmann-esque version of The Banality of Evil?  I submit that by saying and doing nothing, we are, in fact, choosing to be the de facto Adolf Eichmanns of today's Hitlerian movement in the halls of Tehran.  Will you turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to this clear and present danger?  Or will you be one of those who sounds the alarm loud and clear?  It's your choice.  Yes, this is a call to be deeply reflective.  But, it is also a call to action.

And, without question, if you are a believer in the God who moves on behalf of the intercession of humble, faith-filled people devoted to eschewing evil, it is a clear call to pray - earnestly, fervently, continually!

Endnote:

[1] Arendt - On-line biography (http://www.iep.utm.edu/arendt/#H6)
[2] MEMRI - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Accuses the Europeans of Emptying the Clouds
[3] Gerdab (Iran), April 24, 2011.

The Seasons of Change - What Happened to The Arab Spring?

In the several months since the onset of the "Arab Spring" we have watched as presidents and prime-ministers lauded this so-called revolution as a fait accompli of democratic metamorphosis.  Leaders like President Obama waited and watched just long enough to place an additional hand to the back of despots who were being pushed into the abyss of "change" and then springing onto the bandwagon of the new regimes as if these regimes were the 2nd Continental Congress of 1776 ratifying the Articles of Confederation.  Jumping into the fray with "rockets red glare, bombs bursting in air,"  Mr. Obama even trumpeted a non-war against the Libyan dictator to prove his support for "change" to the world and align himself staunchly with the Arab "springers."

But, what have we seen in the weeks since all the soliloquy and gleeful rhetoric began?  What direction has this metamorphosis taken?  In Egypt, we have witnessed the expulsion of an autocrat only to be replaced by a military junta just as despotic and which has aligned itself with the radical Muslim Brotherhood for political expediency.  These passionate "lovers of democracy" have brokered an agreement between the PLO and the Hamas, and shown support for the Hamas, a terrorist organization with absolutely no democratic foundation and clearly no vision for one.  They have allowed Christian Copts to be murdered by the dozens, opened the Egyptian border with Gaza and allowed a massive Al Qaeda presence to arise in the Sinai.  They have acquiesced to Iran, allowing its war ships to traverse the Suez Canal for the first time in decades, have threatened to end the 32-year old Egypt-Israeli peace agreement and have scheduled a farcical shut-down of natural gas sales to Israel.  This is the same "democracy" that our current administration has pledged 1 billion US taxpayer dollars to support!  And that is just Egypt!  Time does not allow us to develop the remaining Kafkaesque scenarios in Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria and the like...but, so far the "Arab Spring" is transitioning into summer with no signs of democracy on the horizon.

"Give it time - don't be so negative," says the ever-engaging idealist.   After all, no democracy was born in a day.  Well, my friends, the chances that true liberty and any semblance of democracy will ever be birthed in this region of the world are slim and none...and the proverbial slim left the region long ago.  When the "masses" in the Arab world finally realize that there is no difference between what is and what was, the real revolution will begin.  We have all heard the saying that "nature abhors a vacuum."  Well, in this region of the world, "human nature" abhors a vacuum...and the vacuum that this "Arab Spring" will become will soon be filled - one can be sure of that.


Although I pray earnestly that I am wrong, I truly believe the end-product of this evacuation will be worse than anyone could ever imagine.  There is no doubt in my mind that radical Islam will jump on this movement's back and its leaders will take the reigns.  The precedence has been set and the path is paved.  The road will lead to chaos and radical Islam will be the congealing force that "calms" the masses into a frenzy of unified hatred and which will spread through the region like hegemonic butter over hot toast.  Once this occurs, what will follow will be a true "revolution" the likes of which we have never seen.

As much as President Obama and his ilk have submitted to the illusive concept of democratic change, the Arab world has rejected him even harder.  As often as he has attempted to castigate and marginalize Israel, the only real democracy in the Middle East, in favor of a hand that reaches out to Islam, that hand has been slapped away dismissively time and time again.  What Obama HAS accomplished with his new Middle East policy is to empower the delusional anti-Israel hatred all the more.  And, what of Islam's "new" American friend?  Well, the anti-American vitriol has not diminished, it has been energized.  Why?  Because, all that is democratic to the radical Islamist is "Satan's ploy" to westernize, AKA poison, the realm of Islam...and that is one thing that will never be allowed.  My friends, change is coming alright...but, as we might say in Georgia, 'taint nothin' what ya thought.  It may be springtime in the Arab Middle East, but there's a storm brewing on the horizon...and it's a doozy!

Adel Al-Toraifi, editor-in-chief of the Arab magazine Al-Majalla, published an op-ed in the Islamic London daily newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat [1] that, coming from an Arab Muslim intellect, was quite revealing.  He focuses much on the lack of influential "Founding Fathers" of this new regional movement and questions whether there really is an "Arab Spring."  Al Toraifi asks the question, "Is there truly an 'Arab Spring,' or is there in fact a conflict internally against the authorities, and externally between the countries that we consider influential in the regional balance of power?"  He goes on to better define the 'change' as no change at all: "However, the plain truth is that we are not facing a genuine change in the ideas or characters of the region, in what has been termed the 'Arab Spring.' There are no 'Founding Fathers,' nor is there an intellectual or cultural elite with a realistic project to change the ruling regime, raise the political awareness of the masses, or achieve the desired regional balance of power."  Listening to what he and other voices of reason in the Arab world are saying will help temper anyone's dreams that what is happening in the Middle East is a stepping stone to a more peaceful and democratic Arab world.

What Al-Toraifi does not do in his article is to predict who or what might fill the void.  My interpretation: YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW!


[1] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), May 19, 2011.

A Cup of Trembling - A City of Gold

Today Israelis celebrate Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) to commemorate the liberation of the physical and spiritual center of the Jewish people.  44 years ago based on the Jewish calender, the Israel Defense Forces freed Jerusalem from Gentile control for the first time in over 2500 years.

This day is more than a mere commemoration of a military or political victory.  And, it is much more than a celebration of a symbolic accomplishment for the Jewish people.  It is the fulfillment of 2500 years of struggle against tyranny, persecution and exile.  As far back as the days of Moses, the Babylonian captivity and the Roman pogroms, Jews have been repeating the mantra: "Next year in Jerusalem!"

Even as Jews began entering back into the Holy Land during the late 1800s and early 1900s,  the chant continued.   For those who survived the Nazi Holocaust, it was the refrain that led them to their next breath.  For the six million who didn't survive, it was often the hymn that led them to their last breath.  And, after the miracle of Israeli National Rebirth in 1948, it became the chorus of the new Israel.

On the 28th day of Iyar,  June 7th, 1967 on the Gregorian calendar, "Next Year" become "Today in Jerusalem!"  The prophets of the Tanach spoke often about Jerusalem.  Zechariah foretold of the significance of the City of Gold:  

Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

Today, Jerusalem is indeed a "cup of trembling unto all the people round about."  In fact the entire world has had its attention drawn to Jerusalem time and time again - but in no generation has it been a more central focus of scrutiny by more people than it is at this point in history.  And it will without any doubt continue to be.

To Jews and Gentile believers in the God of the Bible, Jerusalem is THE Holy City.  Let us indeed follow the admonition of the Psalmist as he said:

"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem;

May those who love you prosper."

Psalm 122:6