Hannah Arendt, a philosopher whose ideas resonate too much
By Barbara Niggl Radloff - sammlungonline.muenchner-stadtmuseum.de, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=127246587
I visit an exhibition about Hannah Arendt at the German Historical Museum in Berlin and reflect on the continuing relevance of her ideas about totalitarianism, assimilation, refugees, political responsibility and the “banality of evil.”
Arendt’s complicated relationship with Jewish identity, German culture and Zionism resonates with my own experience as an immigrant in Berlin, particularly around language, accent and the pressure to assimilate.
The exhibition also leads me to reflect on Arendt’s warning that “no one has the right to obey” and what this means in a time when liberal democracy is challenged by authoritarian and populist politics.
The article connects Arendt’s ideas about political responsibility and resistance with contemporary questions of migration, identity, Israel and Palestine, and the possibility of resisting political systems from within.
Published in: The Jewish Independent
Published: 3 August 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
Tags - Mati Shemoelof, Hannah Arendt, Berlin, Jewish identity, assimilation, political responsibility, totalitarianism, The Jewish Independent