The Banality of Evil and Birstall

I

t was as though in those last minutes he was summing up the lesson that this long course in human wickedness had taught us-the lesson of the fearsome word-and-thought-defying banality of evil.” 
― Hannah Arendt,

I have been warning over the last few days about the unintended consequences of the Referendum Campaign. The demons are out, Pandora's box is open and I am still looking for Hope. The Brexiteers are the Pandora of these events however unintended that might be. However we know that responsibility for these events is a varied and nuanced .The Far Right know clearly what they are doing and there is an rancid smell in my nostrils. The culture wars have begun.

Many questions abound: is thinking to be understood as a psychological process or, indeed, something that can be properly described, or is thinking in one sense sense always an exercise of judgement of some kind, and so implicated in a normative practice. If the "I" who thinks is part of a "we" and if the "I" who thinks is committed to sustaining that "we", how do we understand the relation between "I" and "we" and what specific implications does thinking imply for the norms that govern politics and, especially, those we see as the other”

“Something close to a chilling culture war is breaking out in Britain, a divide deeper than I have ever known, as I listen to the anger aroused by this referendum campaign. The air is corrosive, it has been rendered so. One can register shock at what has happened, but not complete surprise.

"Polly Toynbee”

I have seen the implications of what has been happening. The murder of Jo Cox is on the intersection between those who have started that culture war and that of mental illness it is a murder caused by the discourse , those who feed the discourse . Orlando, Birstall, those who claim guns are too restricted proclaiming homophobia, misogyny it is all there, the relentless unthinking racism fed by others. Hannah Arendt talked of the banality of evil, that evil is fed by the racist joke, the put down, the cry “ I want my country back”, those who say I am not a racist but....... the tweets we have seen. The glibness the projections, the hatred out there. You can see it all over social media. I was talking to someone this morning , they said that after this event and next Thursday that things will never be the same again. 

I often think that individuals are often caught between the jaws of ideas. Two confronting discourses battle it out. In that battle we are forced to decide which side we are on. Both Hegel and marx talked about it..the question is what do we do now.?