File:The Human Condition - Hannah Arendt.jpg: Difference between revisions

"Vita contemplativa to Vita activa"

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Hannah Arendt’s last public interview

As she was beginning the third, and final, book in her "Life of the Mind" trilogy

Video / Interview with Roger Errera in 1974

• https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1978/10/26/hannah-arendt-from-an-interview/

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FkoMm1hs1g

Arendt spoke about the importance of a free press in an era of mass manipulation of truth and public lying

Q: "What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule..."

A: If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has constantly to rewrite its own history. On the receiving end you get not only one lie — a lie which you could go on for the rest of your days — but you get a great number of lies, depending on how the political wind blows. And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please."

Hannah Arendt, a Voice from the Past, a Clarion Call Not to Ignore

Democracy at Risk Explained by a Scholar Who Personally Experienced the Loss of a Nation's Democracy and Horrors of World War II

• https://greenpolicy360.net/w/In_Defense_of_Democracy_and_Freedom

• https://greenpolicy360.net/w/Category:Democracy

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_of_the_Mind

Steven Schmidt/GreenPolicy360 Siterunner: The year 1974 is a period during my 20s when I was working during the day as a book editor/exec in New York City and at night studying at the Graduate Faculty of the New School and fortunate to have Hannah Arendt as one of our professors. Hannah's books, especially The Human Condition, were centers of my History of Ideas curriculum and her thoughts on authoritarianism, and how it takes hold of a nation, were memorable and powerful ideas as she spoke of the conditions in Germany leading to World War II.

Now, in the 2020s in the United States, a wave of authoritarianism is bringing threats to democracy and the republic that should recall the conditions Hannah Arendt spoke of for years in her work and focused in on shortly before her death.

Hannah was a teacher, a scholar, an observer of human affairs -- and a messenger. She was a harbinger of truths, of hard facts, who brought harsh memories of the past to the present as warnings.

We would be wise to listen as Hannah talks.

• https://www.pdcnet.org/arendtstudies

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Arendt

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVSRJC4KAiE

• https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhP9EhPApKE-07vAVTFEuiDvqli1y8f0U

• https://vimeo.com/ondemand/hannaharendt4/546518770

Vita Contemplativa / Vita Activa

Take Time to Contemplate, to Understand and Know before Action

Green 'Vita Activa

Stay aware, Be thoughtful, Act with knowledge and wisdom

GreenPolicy360: We need to recall Arendt's warnings and wisdom now, today. In her 1950s book, The Human Condition, Hannah speaks of Vita Contemplativa and Vita Activa, of creating new beginnings to face challenges that come with life.... Think, contemplate, then act to make a difference, a positive difference in your life.

The Vita Activa and the Modern Age (Re: the 'The Human Condition' via Wikipedia)

Arendt thinks that three great events determined the character of the modern age: "the discovery of America and the ensuing exploration of the whole earth; the Reformation, which by expropriating ecclesiastical and monastic possessions started the two-fold process of individual expropriation and the accumulation of social wealth; the invention of the telescope and the development of a new science that considers the nature of the earth from the viewpoint of the universe."

None of these events could have been foreseen. They happened suddenly and had repercussions their instigators never intended...

Galileo's discovery of the continuity between the Earth and the universe alienates people from their world by showing that an Earth-centered view of the world is illusory, that the Sun does not rise and set as it appears to. What set Galileo apart from other heliocentric theorists is that he proved that heliocentric theories were not merely useful instruments for predicting/explaining data but proper descriptions of reality. Ironically, the outcome of the scientific revolution is that current theories have become so bizarre and that perhaps no one can grasp the world they describe. They have turned out to be useful primarily as instruments, after having shattered our previous understanding of the world. Meanwhile, science now further alienates humans from the world by unleashing processes on Earth that previously occurred only further out in the universe.

Planet Citizen Action

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Planet_Citizen_Action

Planet Citizen, See the 'Big Picture'

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Climate_Problems,_Climate_Solutions

Before there was the Internet, and the World Wide Web, before there was a Digital Revolution, Streaming Data, Wireless and Wired Media always on 24/7/365, there was Hanna warning us about 'Gleichschaltung', the 'coordination process', and how lies are spread ...

The Authoritarian state of mind, the methods and techniques, were being called out for what they were and are as Hannah Arendt looked back at 20th Century conditions that brought on war across the planet.

Disinformation - Online - Dangerous

Arendt warns of conditions that continue to this day...

Hannah Arendt made the following comments in 1974 during an interview with the French writer Roger Errera.

Totalitarianism begins in contempt for what you have. The second step is the notion: “Things must change—no matter how, Anything is better than what we have.” Totalitarian rulers organize this kind of mass sentiment, and by organizing it articulate it, and by articulating it make the people somehow love it. They were told before, thou shalt not kill; and they didn’t kill. Now they are told, thou shalt kill; and although they think it’s very difficult to kill, they do it because it’s now part of the code of behavior. They learn whom to kill and how to kill and how to do it together. This is the much talked about Gleichschaltung—the coordination process. You are coordinated not with the powers that be, but with your neighbor—coordinated with the majority. But instead of communicating with the other you are now glued to him. And you feel of course marvelous. Totalitarianism appeals to the very dangerous emotional needs of people who live in complete isolation and in fear of one another.

Hannah Arendt - If, everybody lies to you, if everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer…And a people that can no longer believe anything, cannot make up its mind. It is deprived, not only of its capacity to act, but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people, you can then do what you please.

* https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/01/totalitarianism-in-age-donald-trump-lessons-from-hannah-arendt-protests

Lies / Authoritarianism / Totalitarianism / Fascism

The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed? If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has constantly to rewrite its own history. On the receiving end you get not only one lie—a lie which you could go on for the rest of your days—but you get a great number of lies, depending on how the political wind blows. And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please.

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Time for Facts, Fact Checking, Reasoned Judgment & Thoughtfulness

Time for Protection of Human Rights, Democracy, a Free Press, Fact Checking, Science and Truth Telling

• https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1978/10/26/hannah-arendt-from-an-interview/

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Disinformation_-_Online_-_Dangerous

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Fact_Checking

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Good_science_needs_good_data_.png

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Stats_-_Green_Research_%26_Science

Planet Citizens, Earth Is In Our Hands

🌎 www.planetcitizen.org ~ www.planetcitizens.org

Environmental movement | Earth Science Vital Signs | Environmental protection

The Commons | Climate Problems, Climate Solutions | Planet Citizens, Planet Scientists

GreenPolicy360 Siterunner:

For some 40+ years your GreenPolicy360 siterunner has worked in many varied ways to get the word out on the crucial importance of environmental security. From the first "Earth Day" to the first warnings of climate change from a new committee on science & technology with a push from Congressman George E. Brown, through various career incarnations and political endeavors, I have attempted to 'work the message', gathering (curating as it's now called) the best science and environmental writing and creating and sharing key strategies and goals even against the odds. The risks we have identified and shared have now turned into a crisis, and as the challenges continue, we continue. Think of this as being 'on the road.'

Perhaps it is human nature to be overwhelmed, or what my teacher Hannah Arendt described in the 'Human Condition' as the realms of labor, work, and action. Many choose to go along to get along, and not act when the threats grow extreme, even existential.

To those who take the chance to make a difference, to contemplate then stand up and act to change the world for the better, GreenPolicy360's Founder-Siterunner salutes you for your bravery.