{"id":17902,"date":"2015-01-18T12:32:23","date_gmt":"2015-01-18T17:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?p=17902"},"modified":"2015-01-18T12:41:42","modified_gmt":"2015-01-18T17:41:42","slug":"satan-and-the-banality-of-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2015\/01\/satan-and-the-banality-of-evil.html","title":{"rendered":"Satan and the Banality of Evil"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17903\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17903\" style=\"width: 373px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/149\/2015\/01\/eichmann.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-17903\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/149\/2015\/01\/eichmann-300x190.jpg\" alt=\"Adolph Eichmann on Trial\" width=\"373\" height=\"236\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17903\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adolph Eichmann on Trial<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/culture\/tvandradio\/11351945\/The-man-who-shot-Adolf-Eichmann.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">An article<\/a> in the Daily Telegraph reports on a new film being made about the man who televised the trial of Nazi death camp criminal Adolph Eichmann.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Adolf_Eichmann\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Eichmann<\/a> was the chief organizer of Hitler\u2019s \u201cfinal solution\u201d to exterminate the Jews.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #252525;\">As the Nazis began the\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"color: #0b0080;\" title=\"Operation Barbarossa\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Operation_Barbarossa\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">invasion of the Soviet Union<\/a><span style=\"color: #252525;\">\u00a0in 1941, their Jewish policy changed from emigration to extermination. To co-ordinate planning for the genocide, Heydrich hosted the regime\u2019s administrative leaders at the\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"color: #0b0080;\" title=\"Wannsee Conference\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wannsee_Conference\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Wannsee Conference<\/a><span style=\"color: #252525;\">\u00a0on 20 January 1942. Eichmann collected information for Heydrich, attended the conference, and prepared the minutes. Eichmann and his staff became responsible for Jewish deportations to\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"mw-redirect decorated-link\" style=\"color: #0b0080;\" title=\"Extermination camps\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Extermination_camps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">extermination camps<\/a><span style=\"color: #252525;\">, where the victims were\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"color: #0b0080;\" title=\"Gas chamber\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gas_chamber\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">gassed<\/a><span style=\"color: #252525;\">. After\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"color: #0b0080;\" title=\"Operation Margarethe\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Operation_Margarethe\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Germany invaded Hungary<\/a><span style=\"color: #252525;\">\u00a0in March 1944, Eichmann oversaw the deportation and extermination of that country\u2019s Jewish population. Most of the victims were sent to\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"color: #0b0080;\" title=\"Auschwitz concentration camp\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Auschwitz_concentration_camp\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Auschwitz concentration camp<\/a><span style=\"color: #252525;\">, where 75 to 90 per cent were killed on arrival. By the time the transports were stopped in July, 437,000 of Hungary\u2019s 725,000 Jews had been killed. Historian\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"color: #0b0080;\" title=\"Richard J. Evans\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Richard_J._Evans\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Richard J. Evans<\/a><span style=\"color: #252525;\">\u00a0estimates that between\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"frac nowrap\" style=\"color: #252525;\">5<span class=\"visualhide\">\u00a0<\/span><sup>1<\/sup>\u2044<sub>2<\/sub><\/span><span style=\"color: #252525;\">\u00a0and 6\u00a0million Jews were exterminated by the Nazis. Eichmann said towards the end of the war that he would \u201cleap laughing into the grave because the feeling that he had five million people on his conscience would be for him a source of extraordinary satisfaction.\u201d<\/span><sup id=\"cite_ref-FOOTNOTEShirer1960Footnote.2C_p._978_1-0\" class=\"reference\" style=\"color: #252525;\"><a style=\"color: #0b0080;\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Adolf_Eichmann#cite_note-FOOTNOTEShirer1960Footnote.2C_p._978-1\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">[1]<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>After he was captured in Argentina in 1960 and smuggled out of the country by Mossad agents to stand trial in Israel. The televised trial was viewed widely and one of the books by Hannah Arendt <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0143039881\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0143039881&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=staonmyhea-20&amp;linkId=JOGUW5QIO7GU2L4B\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (Penguin Classics)<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;\" src=\"https:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=staonmyhea-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0143039881\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\">\u00a0coined the phrase \u201cthe banality of evil.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The phrase stands Satan on his head because he is usually portrayed as a dashing figure, a charming character who is often more shrewd and debonair than the boring good people. The phrase reminds me of the stupid utterance by atheist science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, \u201cWhatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of heaven would be worse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asimov clearly had no real idea of either good or evil. He could not grasp the sparkling, multi faceted, never exhaustible delight of goodness, truth and beauty, nor did \u00a0he really grasp the banality and boredom of evil. Asimov\u2019s sophomoric and empty observation only indicated the paucity of his own moral imagination. Like so many atheists his brilliance and erudition and talent in his own field blinded him to his ignorance and arrogance in the fascinating field of religion.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone who has sat and heard confessions is well aware of the banality of evil. Sin is dull. There is nothing original about it and there is very little that is creative or new about it.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/satan-and-the-banality-of-evil\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Continue Reading<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.practicalpedal.com\/photographcfo\/Adolf-Eichmann-Holocaust.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Image<\/a> via Bing<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 An article in the Daily Telegraph reports on a new film being made about the man who televised the trial of Nazi death camp criminal Adolph Eichmann. Eichmann was the chief organizer of Hitler\u2019s \u201cfinal solution\u201d to exterminate the Jews. As the Nazis began the\u00a0invasion of the Soviet Union\u00a0in 1941, their Jewish policy changed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":17903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Satan and the Banality of Evil<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&nbsp; An article in the Daily Telegraph reports on a new film being made about the man who televised the trial of Nazi death camp criminal Adolph\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2015\/01\/satan-and-the-banality-of-evil.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Satan and the Banality of Evil\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; An article in the Daily Telegraph reports on a new film being made about the man who televised the trial of Nazi death camp criminal Adolph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2015\/01\/satan-and-the-banality-of-evil.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fr. 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