The power of cliche
March 22, 2007
Preparing a lecture which touches on the philosophy of Hannah Arendt, especially her understanding of evil as epitomised in the Nazi war criminal, Adolf Eichmann (who, contra some Reformed "thinkers," -- ahem! -- seemed to think that the Holocaust really did happen.....) I was struck by Arendt's comment on his testimony in his own defence, when he apologized for the fact that so much of what he had to say was dressed up in the language of Nazi civil servanthood:
