How Evil Can Recruit and Drive Group Actions

On this podcast episode of Global Stuff, host Jimmy Durchslag talks
with Elizabeth Minnick about the expanded reissue edition of her book:
The Evil of Banality, On the Life and Death Importance of Thinking,originally published in 2017. Her scholarship is founded in her early work as an assistant to Hannah Arendt, a transformational philosopher on the nature of evil. Jimmy and Elizabeth have an in depth, engaging discussion of how intensive evil, the abhorrent actions of one or a few individuals, differs from extensive evil, the extreme actions by a large group of people, basically the actions of a mass shooter compared to the holocaust or Rwandan genocides. The conversation covers how “normal” people and communities become involved in mass killings or other acts of violence. Elizabeth’s book also considers intensive and extensive good, how people can overcome the push to commit horrendous acts and do what’s right. This is an especially relevant conversation considering the forces at play in the country and the world today.

Elizabeth Minnick Elizabeth Minnich received her doctorate from the
New School under the direction of Hannah Arendt. Following twenty-
five years as a Core Professor in the Graduate School of
Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the Union Institute she was a
professor of moral philosophy at Queens University. Minnick is a
Distinguished Fellow at the Association of American Colleges and
Universities in Washington, DC. She is also the author of Transforming Knowledge (Temple University Press, 1990, 2005) and co-author of The
Fox in the Henhouse: How Privatization Threatens Democracy (Berrett-
Koehler, 2005). She continues to work on issues of justice, equality,
democracy, and education, with particular focus on inclusive, engaged
scholarship, curricula, teaching, and institutional practices.

Jimmy Durchslag has been the host of “Global Stuff”, a monthly guest
driven talk show for over 20 years. He has interviewed many prominent
scholars and leaders who clarify complex issues and provide
suggestions for positive change. He has a long experience as a manager
of several for profit and non-profit organizations. He is one of the
founders of Redwood Community Radio, the parent organization for
KMUD. He recently served as the Director of the Mainstream Media
Project, a nonprofit organization that scheduled expert guests for
interviews on talk shows both nationally and internationally.