DOCSLIB.ORG

What Is Wrong in Heidegger's Revolution?

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
What Is Wrong in Heidegger's Revolution? CHAPTER 4 WHAT IS WRONG IN HEIDEGGER’S REVOLUTION? One of the consequences of Heidegger’s active participation in the National Socialist revolution is that the year 1933 functions as a kind of prism, separating Heideggerians and Heidegger’s detractors into different groups. At the same time, the different views and critiques provide light on Heidegger’s thought on revolution. The conundrum that Heidegger was both a Nazi and possibly the most influential philosopher of the 20th century forms a kind of entry-level exam for all wannabe revolutionary philosophers. This is also the reason why Heidegger’s thought on revolution forms a necessary background for Žižek. A SMALL MAN LIVING IN HARD TIMES Maybe the saddest but still quite an understandable apology—heard from some of Heidegger’s pupils1, from some commentators who haven’t looked at the matter in detail and from many orthodox Heideggerians who want to continue along the lines of the defence prepared by Heidegger himself—is the claim that Heidegger was basically an apolitical man, not very well aware of social questions, who is swept away, very briefly, in the powerful current of Nazism. Often the claim is combined with the general backdrop that philosophers and deep thinkers are not even supposed to be very sensitive towards their immediate surroundings. They deal with grander, deeper, if not eternal things. Forwarded by a philosopher, such a view is understandable, because it at the same time provides its presenter a kind of diplomatic immunity. For the same reason it is very sad, implying that philosophy should happen in an ivory tower (and, by being a comment on philosophy and politics, it manages to pull the rug from under itself). When the claim is made about Heidegger, it is particularly offensive, for several reasons. First, Heidegger himself though that his philosophy—especially its best and deepest insights—was political. Second, Heidegger knew the political, ideological, philosophical and practical thinking of the National Socialist movement much better than many (maybe even better than any) of those describing his Nazism as a “brief” and “erroneous” engagement in something he supposedly did not know well enough. Third, the claim obliterates the possibility, noted by Žižek, that Heidegger was at his best as a philosopher in the 1930’s when he took up militant everyday politics as an alternative to a reclusive Hütte-Dasein. The best and most crystallized form of the “small man, bad times” apology is presented by Hannah Arendt in her essay “Martin Heidegger ist achtzig Jahre alt” (1989), written by Arendt in honour of her teacher’s birthday.2 Arendt begins by talking about the roots of thinking in wonderment, thaumazein, in stopping to take 65 CHAPTER 4 in the simple, and especially in whiling in that wonderment at the simple, which, according to her, was Heidegger’s unique gift. Thinking brings close that which is far and therefore necessarily leaves that which is close—for instance, in perception— unattended. This plain fact is the reason why thinkers are often unaware of the things that are the closest and most important to those who are not in deep thought— Arendt reminds of Thales falling to the well while gazing to the sky. She sums up her view by saying that the inclination towards tyrants—as exemplified by Plato and Heidegger—is for philosophers a kind of professional hazard, “deformation professionelle.” According to Arendt’s eloquent apology, Heidegger didn’t actually take part in politics at all, at least not with his thinking. Heidegger’s thinking sprung from something originary and simple and resulted in something nearly perfect and timeless. He just happened to live during a century filled with tyranny and oppression. So his participation in politics was no more or no less problematic than the participation of any ordinary German. For Heidegger, thinking was of the essence, and thinking was a matter of the simple, originary and profoundly philosophical questions, while Nazism was something temporary, fleeting and mundane. Arendt speaks of “ten feverish months” as if Heidegger’s Nazism was some kind of passing infection. Let us first deal with the detail of the ten months of rectorship. Arendt and the “small man in bad times” apologists in general accept much too uncritically Heidegger’s post-war line of defence, according to which the rectorship was his only overt Nazi activity. The fact is, however, that after the rectorship Heidegger continued and started new national level activities on National Socialist educational politics. As an example of a continuing campaign, Heidegger was pushing for a national Dozent-academy to be established in Berlin, the task of which was to be the National Socialist re-education of university teachers. Heidegger was even toying with the idea of becoming the director of the Academy himself (Safranski 1999, Farias 1991). However, the project was not realised due to internal conflicts and disagreements.3 As a new activity, Heidegger became a member of the committee for the philosophy of justice in the Academy for German Law (Ausschuß für Rechtphilosophie der Akademie für Deutsches Recht). The committee was not any old club for discussion. It was granted official consultant status by the Reich. In addition to Heidegger, members included Hans Frank, Carl Schmitt, Alfred Rosenberg and Julius Streicher, all National Socialist ideologues of first rank (Faye 2009, 205-207). It is absolutely impossible that Heidegger would have been included in the committee in May 1934 if his stepping down from the rectorship in April had been perceived as a rebuttal or abandonment of National Socialist ideals. Likewise, it is impossible that Heidegger would have accepted the invitation if the end of the rectorship had marked an end of his active work for the National Socialist revolution, not to speak of a loss of faith in its ideals. After the rectorship, Heidegger changed his role and tactics, not his goals. As Faye (2009, 207) rightly points out, the membership in the committee is a much more incriminating fact than the rectorship. This for two reasons. First, the membership comes after the rectorship, 66.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Reading Arendt's on Revolution After the Fall of the Wall
    Keeping the Republic: Reading Arendt’s On Revolution after the Fall of the Wall Dick Howard Introduction: From where do you speak, comrade? Two decades after the fall of the Wall seemed to announce – by default, as an unexpected gift – the triumph of democracy, optimism appears at best naïve, at worst an ideological manipulation of the most cynical type. The hope was that the twin forms of modern anti-politics – the imaginary planned society and the equally imaginary invisible hand of the market place – would be replaced by the rule of the demos; citizens together would determine the values of the commonwealth. The reality was at first the ‘New World Order’ of George H.W. Bush; then the indecisive interregnum of the Clinton years; and now the crass take over of democratic rhetoric by the neo-conservatives of George W. Bush. ‘Man is born free, yet everywhere he is in chains,’ wrote Rousseau at the outset of The Social Contract; how this came about was less important, he continued, than what made it legitimate: that was what needed explanation. So it is today; what is it about democracy that makes it the greatest threat to its own existence? In this context, it is well to reread Hannah Arendt’s On Revolution, published in 1963. On returning recently to my old (1965) paperback edition, I was struck by the spare red and black design of the cover, which was not (as I thought for a moment) a subtle allusion to the conflict of communism and anarchism for the realization of ‘true’ democracy, but simply the backdrop against which the editor stressed these sentences: ‘With nuclear power at a stalemate, revolutions have become the principal political factor of our time.
    [Show full text]
  • Havel and Habermas on Identity and Revolution
    260 Praxis International Praxis International 261 HAVEL AND HABERMAS ON IDENTITY AND REVOLUTION Martin J. Matuštík A few months before the November 1989 collapse of „real existing socialism” in Central and Eastern Europe, Habermas reflected on the revolutionary ideas of 1789. How is one to think within plural and secular modernity about a radical democratic republic? He notes the paradox of post-traditional ethical self-realization and moral self-determination: social revolutions project contents and forms that in a finite way transcend the revolutionary action, but revolution shipwrecks before the project gets off the ground. He proposes that to overcome the “sorrow” and the “melancholy” of projected revolutionary possibility, one must form post- traditional identities in those life-forms which are nurtured by a “permanent and everyday-becoming revolution.”1 In a key essay that comes to terms with the ideas and revolutions of November 1989, Habermas reiterates his proposal. But now he consoles the melancholy leftists who despair over the lost meaning of socialism. Has “socialism” become an empty phrase and “ritual oracle,” to use Havel’s characterizations?2 Does it designate merely the deposed mafia of the Communist nomenclature? Why are some unorthodox and reformed Western Marxists in a disenchanted condition of hopelessness? Has the utopia of non-authoritarian life-forms and open identity-formation been lost?3 Habermas stipulates that a „non-communist leftist“ translates the projected revolutionary possibility into a concrete, not concretistic, life-form based on the collective rational will-formation. This formal expression of a life-form means that a radical democratic republic provides that “placeless place” which cures revolutionary melancholy, and which complements and stabilizes post-traditional identity.
    [Show full text]
  • Hannah Arendt's Political Action: a Dialectic of Expression and Deliberation
    Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 2018 Hannah Arendt's Political Action: A Dialectic of Expression and Deliberation Paul Richard Leisen Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Leisen, Paul Richard, "Hannah Arendt's Political Action: A Dialectic of Expression and Deliberation" (2018). Dissertations. 3347. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/3347 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 2018 Paul Richard Leisen LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO HANNAH ARENDT’S POLITICAL ACTION: A DIALECTIC OF EXPRESSION AND DELIBERATION A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY PROGRAM IN PHILOSOPHY BY PAUL R. LEISEN CHICAGO, IL DECEMBER 2018 Copyright by Paul R. Leisen, 2018 All rights reserved. “I’ll have grounds more relative than this–the play’s the thing Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.” —Wm. Shakespeare, Hamlet, III.i.603 (RS 1159) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am fortunate to acknowledge the following people for their support and commitment to my work. Without their guidance, love, and shared investment, this project would not have come to fruition. KellyAnn Corcoran’s love and unwavering belief made the pursuit of this work possible. Our children: Betty, Matthias, Penelope, and Sven grew up as this project developed, they have known Hannah Arendt’s name for as long as they can remember.
    [Show full text]
  • Present Day Ideas on Revolution
    PRESENT DAY IDEAS ON REVOLUTION. BY GILBERT REID. REVOLUTION is a word used of late more frequently than any other. Its use by many classes of society and in so many parts of the world indicates a general unrest and discontent, the usual precursor of revolutionary movements, unless met half way by opposing- and dominating forces in society and in the nation. Once let general discontent get started and revolution will not be long in coming. Use of the word revolution has a wider application than ever before. There are all kinds of revolution, some good and some bad. It is hard to think straight in the midst of confusion of ideas over the meaning of a word as dominating as revolution. There have been national revolutions all through the past, but now we hear of schemes for a world or international revolution. Along with revolution, instigated by radicals, there is counter-revolution, instigated by reactionaries. Thus it is that devotees of monarchism and absolutism are at one time anti-revolution and at another pro- revolution. ProHfic discussion now exists concerning social revolution, industrial revolution, and even moral revolution and spiritual rev- volution. Those who support the existing order find revolution- ists in abundance—among Socialists of the Left Wing, among ad- vocates of the Soviet system, and among Bolsheviks, Spartarcides^ syndicalists, communists, anarchists, I. W. W.'s, and other kinds of radical thinkers and busy agitators. These suspected revolu- tionists, rightly or wrongly, are looked upon by the intelligencia as of the worst and most dangerous type in human society.
    [Show full text]
  • Hannah Arendt, the 'Grammar of Politics,' and the American Revolution
    HANNAH ARENDT, THE ‘GRAMMAR OF POLITICS,’ AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION Draft: Not for Distribution Caroline Ashcroft Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge [email protected] I Despite Hannah Arendt’s admiration for her adopted homeland of America – or, perhaps, because of it – she was never sparing in her criticism of what she believed to be the deep and manifold flaws of the political culture and reality of the United States in the twentieth century. The political failures of America, while never approaching the depths of European totalitarianism, nonetheless mirrored many of the problems that resulted in catastrophe in Europe, and were in large part a result of America’s adoption of a European political heritage. This heritage, or rather, the dominant and problematic element which Arendt rejected, in large part was the result of the French Revolution and a particular notion of ‘the social’ which emerged from it. For Arendt, this could hardly be considered a political tradition, but rather a tradition of anti-politics. The social was nothing less than the breakdown of the traditional political distinctions that structured politics, most importantly, the intrusion of traditionally private concerns into the public sphere, and the reduction of the political to the level of economic concerns. What this had led to, both in Europe and contemporary America, was the breakdown of politics understood as a form of action, leaving men in a condition of political paralysis, unable to understand and engage each other, and thus, with the problems of the modern world. Yet while Arendt worried about the growing predominance of the anti-politics of the social in contemporary American culture, she also thought she saw, within the fabric of the American political system, a way that it could potentially be redeemed.
    [Show full text]
  • The Political Thought of Hannah Arendt (Draft) Prof. Wolin Fall 2016 History/Political Science 72300 Mon. 6:30-8:30 Room: GC 53
    The Political Thought of Hannah Arendt (Draft) Prof. Wolin Fall 2016 History/Political Science 72300 Mon. 6:30-8:30 Room: GC 5383 [email protected] In the annals of twentieth-century political thought, Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) carved out a unique and enduring niche. Today, some 40 years after her death, her political philosophy seems more relevant than ever. In 1951, she wrote the first important book on totalitarianism, perhaps the central political problem of the twentieth century. Seven years later, Arendt published her landmark contribution to European political thought, the Human Condition, in which she seeks to probe and to delineate the existential bases of human freedom. Avoiding the liberal political idiom of "rights," Arendt broaches this theme in terms of the ontological values of "plurality" and "action" – constituents of human distinctiveness that Arendt traces back to the glories of Periclean Athens. Nevertheless, she also found important modern political corollaries to "action" in the fleeting experience of direct (that is, non-representative) democracy: in the notion of "local democracy" that flourished in pre-revolutionary America and in the emergence of "workers consuls" in the course of the European revolutions of 1905, 1918, and 1956. Our main thematic focus will concern Arendt’s central contributions to twentieth century political thought: The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951), The Human Condition (1958), and On Revolution (1962). However, as preparation for this encounter, attention to Arendt’s formative philosophical and political influences is indispensable. Therefore, in conjunction with these works, we will also selectively read a number of background texts that will assist us in clarifying the conceptual framework that Arendt develops in her mature political works.
    [Show full text]
  • Arendt's Notion of Natality
    http://dx.doi.org/10.15446/ideasyvalores.v66n165.55202 Arendt’s Notion of Natality An Attempt at Clarification • La noción de natalidad de Arendt Un intento de aclaración Wolfhart Totschnig* Universidad Diego Portales - Santiago de Chile - Chile Artículo recibido el 23 de junio de 2015; aprobado el 7 de diciembre de 2015. * [email protected] Cómo citar este artículo: mla: Totschnig, W. “Arendt’s Notion of Natality. An Attempt at Clarification.” Ideas y Valores 66.165 (2017): 327-346. apa: Totschnig, W. (2017). Arendt’s Notion of Natality. An Attempt at Clarification. Ideas y Valores, 66 (165), 327-346. chicago: Wolfhart Totschnig. “Arendt’s Notion of Natality. An Attempt at Clarification.”Ideas y Valores 66, n.° 165 (2017): 327-346. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. ideas y valores • vol. lxvi • n.o 165 • diciembre 2017 • issn 0120-0062 (impreso) 2011-3668 (en línea) • bogotá, colombia • pp. 327 - 346 [328] Wolfhart Totschnig abstract Arendt claims that our natality (i.e., our condition of being born) is the “source” or “root” of our capacity to begin (i.e., of our capacity to initiate something new). But she does not fully explain this claim. How does the capacity to begin derive from the condition of birth? That Arendt does not immediately and unambiguously provide an answer to this question can be seen in the fact that her notion of natality has received very different interpretations. In the present paper, I seek to clarify the notion. I bring together and examine Arendt’s scattered remarks about natality and propose a new interpretation that responds to the stated question.
    [Show full text]
  • Hannah Arendt in Jerusalem
    Hannah Arendt in Jerusalem EDITED BY Steven E. Aschheim UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley • Los Angeles • London Contents Preface Steven Aschheim ix Introduction: Hannah Arendt in Jerusalem Steven Aschheim i HANNAH ARENDT: POLITICS AND PHILOSOPHY Hannah Arendt on Tradition and New Beginnings Agnes Heller 19 Hannah Arendt on Revolution Albrecht Wellmer 3 3 The Arendt Cult: Hannah Arendt as Political Commentator Walter Laqueur 47 Theodicy in Jerusalem Susan Neiman 65 THE ORIGINS OF TOTALITARIANISM RECONSIDERED Arendt and The Origins of Totalitarianism: An Anglocentric View Bernard Crick 93 Hannah Arendt on the Totalitarian Sublime and Its Promise of Freedom Michael Halberstam 105 Totalitarianism, Modernity, and the Tradition Dana R. Villa 124 HANNAH ARENDT AND JEWISHNESS: IDENTITY, HISTORY, AND ZIONISM In Search of the Mother Tongue: Hannah Arendt's German-Jewish Literature Liliane Weissberg 149 Binationalism and Jewish Identity: Hannah Arendt and the Question of Palestine Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin 165 Hannah Arendt, the Early "Post-Zionist" Moshe Zimmermann 181 Hannah Arendt's Zionism? Richard J. Bernstein 194 EICHMANN IN JERUSALEM Eichmann in Jerusalem: Justice and History Michael R. Marrus • 205 Malicious Clerks: The Nazi Security Police and the Banality of Evil Yaacov Lozowick 214 Hannah Arendt's Interpretation of the Holocaust as a Challenge to Human Existence: The Intellectual Background Hans Mommsen' 224 Between Justice and Politics: The Competition of Storytellers in the Eichmann Trial Leora Bilsky 232 A Generation's Response to Eichmann in Jerusalem Richard 1. Cohen 253 ARENDT AND GERMAN CULTURE Love and Bildung for Hannah Arendt Gabriel Motzkin 281 German as Pariah, Jew as Pariah: Hannah Arendt and Karl Jaspers Anson Rabinbach 292 The Grammar of Prudence: Arendt, Jaspers, and the v Appraisal of Max Weber Peter Baehr 306 Apologist or Critic? On Arendt's Relation to Heidegger Dana R.
    [Show full text]
  • Hannah Arendt and Karl Jaspers: What Infl Uence Did Jaspers Have on Arendt’S Concept of Judgment?
    『総合政策論叢』第２３号 （２０１２年３月） 島根県立大学 総合政策学会 Hannah Arendt and Karl Jaspers: What Infl uence Did Jaspers Have on Arendt’s Concept of Judgment? Hiroshi MURAI １. Judgment and modern society ⑴ Before and after Fukushima ⑵ Judgment situation ⑶ The topics in this study and preceding research ２. The world of appearance ⑴ The world’s phenomenal nature ⑵ The principles ⑶ The republican ontology ３. Jaspers and Arendt on judgment ⑴ The characteristics of Jaspers’ philosophy and Arendt ⑵ The Great Philosophers ４. Conclusion 1 . Judgment and modern society The aim of this paper is to contribute a viewpoint from which we can better understand the nature and features of the concept of judgment in Hannah Arendt’ s work１）. To investigate Arendt’s concept of judgment is meaningful, as it lacks a decisive text about judgment by Arendt herself, though we suppose that judging makes up the last part of her long-term consideration as the incomplete third part of The Life of the Mind２）. This consideration on judgment presents a viewpoint from where we can look over her thought broadly. The extent of how to think about the importance of judgment in our political life depends on how we think about the essence of political life or a political culture which views discussion and autonomic decision as the important core of its political society. Judgment works in multiple phases in human life obviously, not only in education, business, the military, and social life but also individual everyday life. In recent research, judgment performs not only in intellectual and conscious thinking, but also passionate and unconscious behavior３）. Arendt’s concept of political judgment may offer important guidance for a free and democratic political society.
    [Show full text]
  • Disclosure and Responsibility in Arendt's the Human Condition
    Disclosure and Responsibility in Arendt’s The Human Condition Garrath Williams* Abstract Hannah Arendt is one of the few philosophers to examine the dynamics of political action at length. Intriguingly, she emphasises the disclosure of who the actor is as a specific distinction of political action. This emphasis is connected with some long- standing worries about Arendt’s account that centre on its apparent unconcern for political responsibility. In this paper I argue that Arendt’s emphasis on disclosure actually harbours a profound concern with responsibility. I do so by examining three questions. The main part of the paper focuses on how disclosure is bound up with political actors’ attempts to act with one another. It asks: what would it be for an actor to evade disclosure? And: what is involved in an actor acknowledging the fact of disclosure? – Looking at the matter negatively, attempts to evade disclosure and its implications lead to irresponsibility. Positively, for the actor to accept disclosure is to see herself as bound to her fellow actors and audience by relations of joint action and mutual accountability. The conclusion asks a third question: what would it mean for on- lookers to deny the relevance of actors’ disclosure? I argue that Arendt’s historiography – which revolves around stories in which political actors reveal who they are – reflects her conviction that people can and must take responsibility for their world. Keywords Arendt, responsibility, disclosure, action, violence, exemplarity, story-telling Disclosure and Responsibility in Arendt’s The Human Condition1 Several worries about Arendt’s account of political action – above all, as expressed in her most extended theoretical treatment, The Human Condition – revolve around the topic of responsibility.
    [Show full text]
  • Hannah Arendt's Critique of Individualism in Enlightenment And
    Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Master's Theses Graduate School 2008 The aC se of Human Plurality: Hannah Arendt's Critique of Individualism in Enlightenment and Romantic Thinking Joshua Luke Yoder Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Yoder, Joshua Luke, "The asC e of Human Plurality: Hannah Arendt's Critique of Individualism in Enlightenment and Romantic Thinking" (2008). LSU Master's Theses. 3155. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses/3155 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Master's Theses by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE CASE OF HUMAN PLURALITY: HANNAH ARENDT’S CRITIQUE OF INDIVIDUALISM IN ENLIGHTENMENT AND ROMANTIC THINKING A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in The Department of History By Joshua Luke Yoder B.A., Reinhardt College, 2005 August 2008 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………….…………….iii INTRODUCTION: INDIVIDUALISM, ENLIGHTENMENT, AND ROMANTICISM ………………………………………………....…1 CHAPTER 1. RAHEL VARNHAGEN AND THE BERLIN SALON…........................20 From Confession to Introspection…………………………...…....….......20 The Birth and Death of the Berlin Salon………………………..……….29 Parvenus and Pariahs………………………………………………..…...38 CHAPTER 2. SOCIETY AND POLITICS IN THE MODERN WORLD…...................51 High Society…………………………………………………….….….…51 A Social Response to a Political Question…………………….………....55 A New Kind of Society……………………………………….…….........65 CHAPTER 3.
    [Show full text]
  • Hannah Arendt's Democratic Dissent, Trauma, And
    “All for the sake of Freedom”: Hannah Arendt’s Democratic Dissent, Trauma, and American Citizenship FRANK MEHRING I rather believe with Faulkner, “The past is never dead, it’s not even past,” and this for the simple reason that the world we live in at any moment is the world of the past; it consists of the monuments and the relics of what has been done by men for better or worse; its facts are always what has become (as the Latin origin of the word: fieri—factume est suggests). In other words, it is quite true that the past haunts us; it is the past’s function to haunt us who are present and wish to live in the world as it really is, that is, has become what it is now. —Hannah Arendt, “Home to Roost” (1975) Introduction As an intellectual Jewish immigrant, Hannah Arendt’s work is informed by two key factors: the failures of German intellectuals regarding the rise of fascism and the promise of American democracy. Arendt was haunted by the past and the memories of how the democratic structures of the Weimar Republic had been undermined, manipulated, and finally transformed into a totalitarian terror regime. The issues of freedom, equality, and the shortcomings of democratic societies form a transcultural nexus in her oeuvre. My reading of Arendt will reveal how her efforts to deal with a transatlantic traumatic past shaped the felt need to voice democratic dissent in the United States. While much has been said about her theoretical groundwork on the mechanisms of totalitarian systems, Arendt’s living conditions as a naturalized foreigner, her enthusiasm for American democracy, and her refusal to return to Germany have been to a large extent neglected.
    [Show full text]