https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/The_banality_of_evil/The aim of this blog is to focus on certain charachteristics of the different totalitarisms which plagued the past century by trying to compare some key features of theirs.hourly12000-01-01T12:00+00:00https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/The_banality_of_evil/469884The essence of totalitarianism in the words of killers of Giovanni Gentile, italian philosopher: "I'm killing the idea, not the person".https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/The_banality_of_evil/469450Sometimes many gurus belonging to disparate schools of thinking, religions, etc. crucify us with continuous warnings against an excessive use of reason, rationality, the inhumanizing role of technique and so on. Very strange: all that reason and we are still where we are! If such guys were right,...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/The_banality_of_evil/469122One of the most strongly supported ambitions by totalitarians is the totally unscientific belief that human beings can be reset as much as one likes and transformed in a white paper sheet. This should assure, among other things, the road map to progress. If something like that occurred in...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/The_banality_of_evil/468689Another incredible example of the almost immortal feeling for totalitarianism and its representatives is given by the myth of Ernesto Guevara, better known as "Che" Guevara. Contrary to Fidel Castro, who basically was an opportunist embracing communism just because it offered him a wonderful mean...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/The_banality_of_evil/468408In a certain sense, a totalitarian is someone who constantly lives in the future, by sacrificing the present life (and lives of other people). Again, too often this is a behavior typical of our own private lives.https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/The_banality_of_evil/468044Cynically speaking, it seems that there are victims of rank A and victims of rank B [in Italy, rank A stands for first-class and rank B for second-class]. Indeed, let us consider the following. (Too) many allegedly influential representatives of engaged "high" culture (university professors,...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/The_banality_of_evil/467674As noted by Hans Albert, in social/political matters the use of irrational arguments of various kinds (emotivity, sentiments, emphasis, etc.) is, in general, greatly appreciated in contrast to sober cost/benefits reasonings et similia. Maybe a look at books by Bertrand Russell may help a bit...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/The_banality_of_evil/467503A crucial misunderstanding about culture is that it is often confused either with erudition or with indoctrination. The only form of culture which can help against totalitarianism is the one which enforces the reason and the critical use of it. Too often certain "high philosophical" culture,...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/The_banality_of_evil/467342In a certain sense, stuff like astrology et similia operate like totalitarian thought: you are relieved of the responsibility of thinking autonomously, there are some simple formulas which the entire complexity of the world around us (people included) is reduced to, you have to make no efforts to...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/The_banality_of_evil/467237As probably many of us know, a flood of (mis-)interpretation of the role of science and technique (as if they were almost the same thing) beat down on us since long time. They would be the main cause of all the evils of present-day epoch, including pejorative aspects of totalitarianism, etc. etc....