The Banality of Evil: When Doing What is Right Means Committing Evil Acts
Broken furniture, shattered glass, and ruined books litter the floor around Ji Xianlin. Helplessly, frozen in shock, he watched as the Red Guard invaded and destroyed his home. After recognizing some of the students raiding his home, Ji Xianlin, in his memoir The Cowshed, comments on how decent people can be convinced to follow the eviler side of a conflict because of a mix of fear and true belief in the cause, a dynamic expressed by historians like Hannah Arendt and Stephane Courtois in their analyses of totalitarian regimes. When discussing his reasons for writing this memoir in the “Author’s Preface,” Xianlin explains how he doesn’t blame his persecutors for what they did to him because “many of the persecutors were also victims of the revolution, just like the persecuted; the two simply happened to find themselves in different positions,” (Xianlin, xxii). Xianlin’s statement is supported by Arendt’s theory of the banality of evil, stating that evil acts are not necessarily committed by evil people but are instead often committed by people who were dutifully obeying the orders of their leaders or felt pressured to do so. It is also supported historically by the tactics used by totalitarian regimes to entice and control their followers, and the followers subsequent unwavering loyalty, as presented in The Black Book of Communism and other historical texts. Being able to understand and recognize how totalitarian regimes take hold and gain supporters is important for citizens all around the world today, so that people can recognize when a totalitarian group may be trying to control them.
When late one night, knocking sounded at Xianlin’s front door, he knew without a doubt that it was the Red Guard coming for him and that there was nothing he could do to stop them. Xianlin had been sure that he was the model member of the Great Leader’s revolution, and because of that surety in his loyalty to the party, he overlooked the fact that the party was not loyal to him and would turn against him if it benefited party, leading to the raiding of his house and his eventual torture. Xianlin wrote, “the revolution itself had now decided I would be struggled against next. Even then, however, I was too loyal to question it,” (Xianlin, 38) highlighting the fact that he was so loyal to the party, that he just accepted his fate as being branded a traitor to the party. The unquestioning loyalty Xianlin had towards the totalitarian regime he suffered under is common among followers of totalitarian parties, many not realizing just how bad of a situation they are in and the horrors of what they’ve done until it’s too late. Hannah Arendt draws attention to that fact in Eichmann in Jerusalem when she reports on Adolf Eichmann’s trial under the Israel government in 1961. When Eichmann was asked about if he understood the goals and opinions of the Nazi party, he responded with the proverb: “Nothing’s as hot when you eat it as when it’s being cooked,” (Arendt, 39), implying that he was unaware of the Nazi Party’s true intentions and goals with the Holocaust until the mass genocide was occurring, and that he had just been obeying the orders he had been given. It has been since proven through other statements and evidence that Eichmann was aware of the wrongs he was willingly committing, but that proverb does hold true when prescribed to the citizens that were controlled so completely by a totalitarian government that they didn’t notice the evil being committed or the danger they were in, which Arendt presents in her theory of the banality of evil. Those ideas are proven to hold true when Xianlin shows how he, a loyal follower to his totalitarian leaders, was so controlled that he was unaware of the fact that he could be ousted and turned against at any time, and when it happened, he could do nothing but accept it.
Powerful young men, with red bands on their shirt sleeves and brandishing cudgels, surround the frightened family. The Red Guards are treated with respect and success, holding power inside and outside of their party hierarchy despite being glorified thugs because the Chinese Communist Party knows that those in the Red Guard are the most loyal to the party. The party ideology is so in control of them, that they would rather die than turn against the party, especially for some, if it would mean losing their status and power. When discussing them, Xianlin said, “The Red Guards have done well for themselves… have successfully scaled the slippery slope of the Party bureaucracy. And yet, strangely, none of them appear to regret their deeds!” (Xianlin, 41). Xianlin understands the Red Guard’s desire for success and upward mobility under a relatively successful government, but he doesn’t understand their willingness to commit atrocities and harm their fellow man. That willingness, however, can be understood through the analyses of totalitarian regimes and how loyal their true followers can be. Hannah Arendt in her analytical work The Origins of Totalitarianism, states “the success of totalitarianism is rather the true selflessness of its adherents… neither is he likely to waver when the monster begins to devour its own children and not even if he becomes a victim of persecution himself… he may even be willing to help in his own prosecution… if only his status as a member of the movement is not touched,” (Arendt, 307). Arendt’s observation highlights how important the loyalty of the followers is to a totalitarian regime because it’s their loyalty that drives them to do anything for their leaders and cause. Their willingness is both from the want of the success of the party, but also from their fear at being cast out or turned on by the party they are so loyal to. Some high-ranking members of totalitarian parties may fear losing their success and benefits if ousted from a party, but the members on ranks similar to the Red Guard mostly fear the loss of a feeling of belonging that comes with their status, making it imperative that they do whatever they must and follow all orders to keep their status, even if it means hurting others or getting hurt themselves.
Rumors spreading like wildfire, whispers of traitorous deeds follow every professor home, trepidation growing every minute they don’t know if they’ll be the next on the chopping block. Ji Xianlin and many other professors at Peking University felt the most fear out of the opponents to the Chinese Communist Party because totalitarian regimes often sought to take down anyone, they believed they could not control or could hurt the party in some way, sometimes referred to as “doubtful elements.” Teachers and lecturers fall into that category because they have access to students and younger generations that, through school, could encourage free thinking and turn against the totalitarian regime. In his memoir, before the raid on his home, Xianlin said, “Eventually, I knew, the storm was going to crush me. All the lecturers who dared to oppose New Beida were feeling this way,” (Xianlin, 37). He knew the trouble he could face in opposing the communist party, but Xianlin, and other professors, did it anyway because they would rather side with the party, they believe in than join the side they disagree with out of fear. And that opposition did cause trouble, painting targets on their backs as possible threats to the party that need to be disposed of. In The Black Book of Communism, a text that gives the history and analyzes totalitarian regimes in the 20th and 21st centuries, one contributor Nicolas Werth discusses how Lenin sent orders to “intern ‘kulaks, priests, White Guards, and other doubtful elements in a concentration camp,’” (Werth, 73). Werth highlights the groups that the Russian Communist Party under Lenin sought to get rid of, who were viewed as dangerous to the party because they either held positions of power that threatened the party’s control, or they were just different. Educators were not listed, but the designation of “doubtful elements” still applies under Werth’s categorization, because educators are knowledgeable and capable of passing their knowledge onto others in a way that, depending on what they are teaching, could encourage opposition or revolt, threatening the totalitarian power. And as Xianlin stated, a fair number of professors did openly oppose the Communist Party, lecturing against them because they believed it was right, which in turn made them “doubtful elements” that had to be taken care of.
In his destroyed home, Xianlin is surrounded by students turned monsters in his eyes, and who now see him as a teacher turned traitor. During any conflict, each side will appear as evil, or even monstrous, to the other, because they believe so strongly in their side’s ideology and cause that they can’t fathom how the other side could be correct. It’s a consequence of conflict that has been present all throughout history, especially during political conflicts as seen in Xianlin’s and other memoirs. Xianlin said, “There may have been some good people led astray among the hooligans who raided my home. But many of the others were psychopaths indulging their sadistic instincts under the cover of revolutionary instructions,” (Xianlin, 41). To Xianlin, the Red Guards’ actions were barbaric and psychotic, most of them acting in that way out of a desire for violence and they were using their orders to raid his home as an excuse. And while his view isn’t entirely wrong, it doesn’t consider any of the students’ opinions, both on their actions and Xianlin’s actions. Under the control of the Chinese Communist Party, the Red Guard view Xianlin as a threat to the party that must be taken care of, which they have been given permission to do so by their leaders. Just as Xianlin believes he’s on the right side, the Red Guard believes that they are on the right side. In his memoir Witness, Whittaker Chambers, an ex-communist member of the Soviet Union who testified against Alger Hiss and other prominent political figures to expose the Russian spy networks in the United States in the 1950s, shares his thoughts on why he and others joined the Communist Party, despite it putting them at odds with their home and the high chance of the party’s failure. Chambers said, “in the last instance, men must act on what they believe is right, not on what they believe probable,” (Chambers, 2). Chambers’ reason for joining the Communist party is that he truly believed in their cause at the time, and he did the spying they asked him to do because he was loyal and thought it was the right thing to do, even if it was illegal or unethical. While it was a different year and a different part of the world, comparisons and analyses of different totalitarian regimes show how no matter the place, they all act similarly in hierarchy and methods of taking control and keeping control. So, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the Red Guard actions, no matter how barbaric, come from a similar place as Chambers’ actions, that they come from a place of belief in their leaders and a desire to do what’s right to them, even if it counters what others see as being right.
Overall, an important component of a totalitarian regime’s success in taking complete control is the complete trust in and loyalty to the regime from its members. A regime can be all powerful financially or militarily, but without the total support of the masses, of the common citizens that make up the majority of the party and its members, the regime has no chance of being able to take root and eventually total control. So, it’s important for us to understand the lengths totalitarian groups will go to take control, inciting fear through propaganda and staged violence to create trust in the party, so that we as the current citizens of the world can strive towards avoiding being taken control of by totalitarian regimes. And the way we understand is by reading memoirs like Xianlin’s and Chambers’, as well as reading historical analyses like those of Arendt and Werth, since they give evidence of the real power totalitarian regimes can have and the danger they pose.
Works Cited
- Xianlin, Ji. The Cowshed: Memories of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, 1998.
- Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem, Viking Press, 1963.
- Arendt, Hannah. The Origins of Totalitarianism, Schocken Books, 1951.
- Bartošek, Karel; Margolin, Jean-Louis; Panné, Jean-Louis; Werth, Nicolas. The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression, Stéphane Courtois, Editions Robert Laffont, 1997.
- Chambers, Whittaker. Witness, Random House, 1952.