Gina Haspel epitomizes what Hannah Arendt wrote about in The Banality of Evil

[lunatica]

Haspel says she was just doing her job. And then she claims torture did work, but it’s all top secret so she can’t talk about it.

If John McCain hadn’t brought up her background in literally running a torture site would we even be hearing any discussion? My feeling is that the answer would be no.

And the media is giving both sides the equal treatment on this, letting her supporters sing her praises and claiming categorically that she would never, ever agree to torture if Trump demanded it of her.

It scares me and makes me sick that there are people in places of power who can justify their worst actions by saying in essence that they were just doing their job. If anyone hasn’t read The Banality of Evil then they should. Or just read the cliff notes. It’s about the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem after he was found and abducted by Israelis from Argentina. Eichmann’s defense was that he was just doing his job. Arendt posited in the book that evil deeds, for the most part, are perpetrated not by sadistic monsters, but by ordinary people who value authoritarianism above the welfare of others.

It can certainly, and might well happen here if we don’t pay attention to what’s happening right under our noses. They’re already rounding up undocumented people and tearing families apart and deporting entire groups of people who were given refuge because they were in mortal danger in their own countries.

When does this pattern begin to have an impact on our sense of humanity? If we can see totalitarianism growing in our representatives and we react to it with disgust and fear then the first thing we must do is object to it publicly. Our first weapon is our vote. Anyone who stays home that day is part of the problem which will affect all of is.

[Solly Mack]

1. I despair that a lot of people don't even care.

Maybe it's easier not to care. Maybe it's easier to tell yourself it doesn't matter. I don't know.

For me, to my way of thinking, acceptance, whether reluctantly or with complete agreement, is one more step down the path of embracing authoritarianism.

You can't let one fox in and then pretend that fox will keep the other foxes out. Embracing a war criminal is not a stopgap measure. Not matter how you parse it, you're accepting - promoting/elevating - a war criminal.

And you're ever so correct - it is a prime example of the banality of evil. The acceptance, the denial, the excuses then and now, and the apathy shown - then and now.

[lunatica]

3. There are a few who will always embrace authoritarianism

And a few who will actively resist it, but the greater majority will just let it happen without thought. They’ll end up wondering how it happened.

[Solly Mack]

4. Yes. Exactly. Without thought, without care...just ease right into it.

After, they'll wonder how? why?

[PatrickforO]

2. A good, thoughtful post.

My father fought in the Second World War and often solemnly intoned that 'Hitler had sold the German people a bill of goods,' meaning he had duped them into allowing he and his Nazis to nearly destroy the world. But, here's why we should not buy that: in the brilliant movie 'Judgment at Nuremberg' with Spencer Tracy playing an American judge, Tracy repeatedly asks Germans about whether they knew. Invariably, the reply is 'no, and we weren't political.' But they knew - they had to.

Think another nazi holocaust couldn't happen right here in the USA? Think again.

Here in America, we go about our days working, trying to make ends meet and just living our lives. Many do not worry much about the politicians unless something happens that hurts them, and most only become aware of candidates the week before the election. But, what if your employer ordered you to do something you felt was immoral? Even something illegal?

On the one hand, you do not want to be the 'bad guy,' but on the other, you don't want to lose your job. Way back when, in 1925, a fellow named Percy Moore was working at a grocery store in Colorado Springs. At the time the Klan pretty much ruled Colorado - we had a Klan governor, and they controlled a lot of things, ostensibly for Christianity, but really because of racism. Percy's boss told him that he needed to join the Klan or he could find another job. Percy had the morality and the intestinal fortitude to walk out that very minute. He conquered his fear, and he soon found another job. I'm very proud of him.

But how many of us would object, walk out, leave, refuse to do evil? I'll tell you, for every Percy, there were probably a hundred others who just 'went with the flow.'

Germans did that too, even though the 'flow' was taking hundreds of years of their culture and circling the drain.

See, as this unfolds, each of us must ultimately define where the line lies beyond which we will not go. And that has risk - Germans who would not go beyond a certain line were tortured, starved and met their end in death factories like Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen.

How many who read this post, I wonder, are willing to be tortured and die for their principles? For common decency? For morality?

[lunatica]

5. No one can resist torture

No one. That’s the main argument used when fighting against its use. The military are the first to say this and actually teach soldiers how to deal with being tortured.

But if we wait until a totalitarian government takes root then torture will be an inevitable part of it. Those of us who see the ease with which that is coming must do our part to stop it. Something as simple as writing this OP, as small as that gesture may be, is important. If nothing else to put out a warning, and trying to get everyone to vote this year. We can’t assume someone else will do it.

[lunatica]

6. As we speak the Republicans are chipping away at women's rights

Why? Just to say it’s because they hate women isn’t a complete answer, nor does it do much more than scratch the surface. It’s about power. It’s about men who feel threatened in their assumed superiority that women will abuse the men’s power and standing.

How far will they go if no one resists. In a totalitarian society how long after taking away women’s rights will they start jailing and torturing women who don’t follow the draconian laws they will surely put in place. What or where is there a line they won’t cross to instill their authoritarian beliefs.

[lunatica]

7. Kick

[rsdsharp]

8. I keep coming back to the debate

where Trump said that if he ordered torture, "They'd do it." Everyone poo-poo'd that, saying the generals would resign first. Maybe they would, but Haspel wouldn't. That's why he nominated her.

[lunatica]

9. If I had written this even just a year ago

I would have been roundly attacked for going too far. People would have accused me of hyperbole and criticized my reference to Nazis.

Everything looks very different in the span of one year. What will it look like a year from now?