Although she applied it to an individual, arguably, Arendt's "banality of evil" applies to the broader experience of living under authoritarianism. Mostly, you're still clocking in, running errands & living ordinary life while the regime targets, terrorizes & takes over.
Reposted from
Jamal Greene
The touchstone of most authoritarian regimes is not the kind of total control that most people feel in their day-to-day lives. It is that the regime is only selectively bound by law, producing constant low-grade anxiety as to whether, how, or against whom power will be exercised.
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It proves the Great Filter solution to the Fermi paradox is probably correct.
Had the same feeling a bunch when going out to do errands during early COVID, like at the store but maybe also contracting a lethal illness...