Hannah Arendt Page #5

but "Thou must kill."

To do your duty, goodness

was a temptation you had to resist.

Great.

So no one is responsible or guilty.

Every sane person

knows murder is wrong.

Then most Europeans,

including many of our friends,

went insane overnight.

Heidegger was your friend.

- Hans!

- He wasn't our only disappointment.

You can't write like this

for the New Yorker.

- You cannot!

- Hans, the glass door!

It's all too abstract.

And confusing.

They don't want

a philosophy lesson.

They have to know

what the Nazi Eichmann did.

Oh, Hemingway was just

an ambulance driver, Thomas.

As a writer, he was nothing more than the

premature ejaculator of the 20th century.

Oh, you just hate him

because he wrote like a real man.

Do you want to forgive him?

That's absurd.

I'm glad he'll be hanged.

So, here's to Heinrich's recovery.

Well, come on.

Yeah. To Heinrich.

Come over, please. To his health.

We drink to his health.

A very good idea. Here, Hans. To Heinrich.

Cheers.

Stups, here's to you.

No more kissing.

Except for me.

Why was Hans

so furious with me?

He's in love with you. Has been ever

since he was a student.

Nonsense.

He hates Heidegger more for stealing

your heart than for joining the Party.

Then he should hate you even more.

Maybe he does.

Celebrating my health

is exhausting.

I'm off to bed.

Thinking

does not bring knowledge,

as do the sciences.

Thinking

does not produce usable,

practical wisdom.

Thinking...

does not solve

the riddles of the universe.

Thinking does not

endow us with the power to act.

We live

because we are alive.

And we think...

because we are thinking beings.

We are so used to considering

reason and passion as opposites,

that the idea of passionate thinking,

where thinking and being alive

are one and the same,

is terrifying for me.

Excuse me.

No. Hannah!

Tolstoy wrote War and Peace

in less time.

- Hello?

- Mrs. Arendt.

Bill Shawn here.

Is this a good time to talk?

I mean, are you busy?

Yes. Why?

Can I be of any help?

How?

Perhaps if you've finished

the first article, I could have a look.

Mr. Shawn, I don't deliver in pieces.

O-Of course. I do realize what

an enormous task this is...

and wanted to let you know how much

we're looking forward to the results.

Well, then perhaps I should get back to

it instead of chatting on the phone.

Or did you want to pressure me

with a deadline?

No, of course not.

Take as long as you need.

Thank you.

Bye.

What's the matter with you? Have you

fallen in love with her, or what?

Oh, God, no.

You claim you

weren't a normal recipient of orders.

You thought about

what you were doing.

Didn't you say that?

I don't believe so, no.

You didn't think about it?

Sorry? You

didn't think about it?

You were an imbecile?

You didn't think at all?

Think?

Yes.

Of course I thought about

what I was doing.

You were not an imbecile?

Are you sure you can go?

You've got everyone so worried,

they'll have a wheelchair waiting.

I'm sure some

lovely women will be very eager

to push you around.

No one can

push me around like you.

Lotte...

Take good care of her.

Thanks.

Listen to this.

I've changed the paragraph.

"Evil is supposed to be

something demonic.

Its incarnation is Satan.

But in the case of Eichmann,

one could find

no such trace of satanic 'greatness.'

He was simply unable to think."

That's great.

It's better, right?

Yes...

Voil, monsieur.

"From a humdrum life without

significance and consequence,

the wind had blown

Adolf Eichmann into history."

Fascinating choice.

It begins so poetically.

A bit over the top.

"A leaf in the whirlwind of time,

he was blown into the marching

columns of the 1,000-year Reich."

Twice in a row

with a wind metaphor?

But listen to this.

"It was sheer thoughtlessness.

Something by no means

identical with stupidity...

that predisposed him to become...

one of the greatest

criminals of the 20th century.

He was simply unable to think."

That's original.

This here is also quite original.

They'll have our heads for this:

"Wherever Jews lived,

there were recognized

Jewish leaders,

and this leadership,

almost without exception,

cooperated in one way or another,

for one reason or another,

with the Nazis.

The whole truth is...

that if the Jewish people had really been

unorganized and leaderless,

there would have been chaos

and plenty of misery,

but the total number of victims

would hardly have been...

between four and a half

and six million people."

Jewish leaders testified at the trial.

It had to be mentioned.

She's blaming the victims.

That's not true, Fran.

She clearly makes a distinction between

the powerlessness of the victims...

and the dubious choices

of some of their leaders.

"Clearly"?

Don't exaggerate.

The whole section is only

10 pages out of almost 300.

Them's fighting words, Bill.

You better make sure

she's got her facts straight,

or we'll be needing bodyguards-

for her and for us.

She doesn't strike me as someone

who's off on the facts.

But as for the grammar-

What you have written

is simply brilliant.

I suggest that it be broken up

into five articles.

Five?

If I give it that much space,

it will entail very few changes.

I spoke with your editor, and he told me the

book will come out directly afterwards.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Shall we?

Sure.

This is Greek, right?

"Einai." It means "to be,"

in the sense of existence.

But, of course, you realize that most

of our readers don't understand Greek.

They should learn.

There is really only one section...

that, um,

worries us a bit.

Oh, today you say "us," and not "me"?

Invoking your army,

Mr. Shawn?

Yes.

Maybe I am.

It's this description

of the Jewish leaders.

Their relationship with Eichmann's

office was very important.

I think I made that quite clear.

Yes, of course,

but you do offer a kind of

interpretation of your own...

that might be-that might disturb just a bit.

That is incorrect.

I purposely

did not attempt to analyze...

or to explain their behavior.

"To a Jew,

this role of the Jewish leaders in the

destruction of their own people...

is undoubtedly the darkest chapter

of the whole dark story."

Now that could count

as a kind of interpretation.

But it's a fact.

Finally.

I can't wait to read it.

How do you like it?

"How"?

"How" is an assumption.

You should ask me if I like it.

You have no right to bring

these issues out in public.

You don't know what you're talking about.

I will cancel-

"Only 10 pages."

That makes

a hundred phone calls per page.

So far.

...is crap!

Just ignore them...

You'll drive yourself crazy.

But Shawn's response in

the New Yorker is very convincing.

- Should I send it to you?

- What response?

To that vicious article

in The New York Times.

Oh, you mean that!

Forget it.

Tell me how Heinrich is doing.

Charlotte cooks for him every evening.

Please tell her that Heinrich

can only eat meat twice a week.

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