2nd Semester Final: Reflection

Most certainly the Banality of Evil: the notion that evil is the product of normal people being put into corrupt situations.  It is not the most complex idea covered in Global Connections, but its wisdom is nonetheless invaluable.  The Banality of Evil reminds us that no matter how immoral of lowly we deem others, that they are still people, and thus should be treated with the dignity that one believes should be given to any person.  Many times this is challenging to do; we would be more inclined than not to believe that there was something fundamentally wrong with, say, those who collaborated with the Nazis.  Same for those who supported the apartheid regime of South Africa.  But to see those individuals as less than human beings, even if their actions are so contemptible, would imply one has learned nothing from those actual moments of history.  The actual crimes committed in those two respective examples only occurred out of, well, the Banality of Evil.  The perpetrators and collaborators in each of those cases allowed themselves to be pushed into such situations out of either self-interest, or failure to address their own cognitive dissonance, or some other reason.  This does not make them anything less than people.  To fail to see their humanity would merely echo what they did to the people they committed those crimes against.  Thus, we must all understand the Banality of Evil in order remind ourselves of our own human nature, and grant each other the inalienable dignity that comes with it.