Noone saw me,no one met my eyes.
I felt the life inside me wilt and die
Of no value to the human race
If no-one saw them they would not exist
Leonard Cohen”s name was on a list.
I almost burned away in hot distress
The charred remains would have no fixed address.
Like the Jews who wandered for a space,
No eyes no gold ,no teeth, I am a Jew
I have no tongue to speak, nor language too.
http://bostonreview.net/vivian-gornick-hannah-arendt-on-being-jewish
I came across this because I am interested in Vivian Gornick’s writing but as it is about Hanna Arendt that makes it doubly interesting.I find it hard to comprehend the development of Israel and why some Jewish people are so against it.This clarifies it a little
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n09/judith-butler/i-merely-belong-to-them
This broad ranging review gives a very good account of Arendt’s political views on Jews and on Israel.I learned a lot and have sympathy for her position.I am fearful of the current state of the middle east in general
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_spectator/2009/10/the_evil_of_banality.html
A very interesting and disturbing discussion of books about Heidegger and Arendt.Heidegger’s silence after the war about the
And looking at the quote below it seems they lacked wisdom
After reading the material I have posted on,I saw that Arendt believed Eichmann was not psychotic or crazy.She said he “did not think”.It puzzle me because one factor above all would seem to me to be relevant.That if a senior Nazi had decided he did not agree with the Final Solution or any policy of the Nazis he would have been shot and/or his family would have been attacked.So fear would have played a major role even if he had wished to stop what he ws doing.A big factor that allows humans to murder others en masse like the witches is to define them as somehow not human.And secondly to criticize their behaviour when it is cause by the conditions they are forced to live in.Jews were moneylenders because Christians were not allowed to do it [ charging interest was not allowed them]Being rather intelligent some Jews became wealthy and were criticised as being only interested in money,grasping and avaricious.Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.Now in the UK this is happening to the sick,poor and unemployed.Scapegoats are attacked when times are hard. Whenever people meet a murderer they are surprised how normal they look.And other people look weird but are in fact good and kind,maybe a little handicapped in some way or just eccentric.Judging by appearances is an error; and especially if they are first impressions
When we say someone is a great thinker,what do we mean?And can someone be a great thinker about some aspects of life,the world,society,philosophy and a very poor thinker in other aspects?Naturally I am thinking about Heidegger.Greatly admired,influential and a tutor to the likes of Hanna Arendt.
We could say he did us a service in reminding us that not even a great philosopher is always a good judge of society,politics and new ideas.Moreover,he must have shut his eyes to the attacks on Jewish people across Germany….How can this be?I hear someone saying,thinking is not enough if it is restricted to what is safe to think about.Character,ethical status,love of humanity seem to be absent from some of our academics and scholars.And how much more is that likely when our Universities are run as profit making businesses where the number of citations you receive is the measure of your work’s worth…. so noone may ever read it yet if you ask all your colleagues,friends and contacts to cite you then success and acclaim await.Meanwhile society crumbles,the poor are punished and old made anxious.
In 2012 a German film titled Hannah Arendt was released, directed by Margarethe von Trotta, and with Barbara Sukowa in the role of Arendt. The film concentrates on the Eichmann trial, and the controversy caused by Arendt’s book, which at the time was WIDELY MISUNDERSTOOD as defending Eichmann and blaming Jewish leaders for the Shoa/Holocaust
How my heart sings 