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Banality of Evil
The world war ends.
Crowds are shouting to execute me.
They call me “Nazi”, “devil”, “Satan”.
But why? I don’t understand.
All I did was follow the orders.
Everyone does so.
What wrong can that be?
Uniformed people break into my hiding place
and handcuff my hands,
cursing and shouting as if I have committed
the most horrifying and violent crime in the entire world。
They stare at me fiercely,
as if trying to pierce me through with their vision.
I am nervous, anxious, afraid.
I worry about my family.
“Where is my wife?
Please don’t hurt my child.”
They imprison me
send me on a plane
and take me to the court.
The judge declares:
“Responsible for the death of
millions of Jews.”
No! I simply followed instructions.
Under that situation,
is there any reason for me
to disobey the Fuehrer's will?
Even if this is a crime,
it should be a crime by the entire nation,
an unavoidable, justified crime.
The lawyer claims:
“As a rational adult with intact cognitive ability,
he only presents his distorted humanity
and heinous moral.”
How? I am a loyal believer of Kant.
His quote I’ve always remembered:
“It is the starry firmament of heaven
and the moral law within me
that fills the soul.”
I am not a criminal.
I simply did
what everyone else does.
I simply believed
what everyone else believes.
The banality of evil:
The lesson of the fearsome.
Thought-defying evil
instead of evil nature.
A man whose violence exceeds the devil
yet has such a gentle, civilized face,
which is the most horrifying part.
We are accomplices of evil
without realizing it.
We are parts of the crowds
without noticing anything wrong.
When an avalanche takes place,
not a single snowflake is innocent.
Yet,
they don’t realize it.
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The first part is written through an imaginary perspective of Adolf Eichmann, while the later part is from an objective, critical perspective analyzing the phenomenon.