flos push book - "Hannah Elam"

Hannah Oran holds a critical attitude towards traditional Western political philosophy, and her definition of politics is more inclined to the Roman republic. Elan believes that it was precisely because the political philosophy was too "off the ground" that a world war was triggered, which later led to the emergence of Hitler in various ways. In other words, Olan is a city-state system that is biased towards ancient Greece, and in modern times, it is the newly established United States.

The whole book is divided by Erlan's works

Chapters 1-3: The Origins of Totalitarianism

Chapters 4-7: The Human Condition

Chapters 8-10: Talking about shorter or unfinished works

Personally, the most impressive chapters are chapters 6 and 7 on how people practice life, followed by chapters 5 and 8 on what freedom is, and finally chapter 10 on thinking and judgment.

Oran's definition of politics

1. To restore the independence of politics, politics and law should only appear in the public sphere and not in the private and social spheres (extended reading: BBC Reith Lecture 2019 Johnathan Sumption)
2. Politics only obeys its own internal rules. Politics is based on the diversity of human beings. Politics must respect, express and not erase the differences between people. Politics only appear in the public space created by the gathering of different individuals. Everyone in the space speaks as "equal" and "different".・Politics is the manifestation of political action. "Action" refers to the individual's "words and deeds" to show themselves and to achieve some kind of cooperation through communication and negotiation. What this "doer" shows through collaboration is power and brings something new to the world, a kind of "beginning". (Extended mini-program: Interview with Mr. and Mrs. Obama at American Factory on Netflix)

There is absolutely no inevitability in politics, and true politics is so rare and so penetrating in so few places that, from a historical point of view, only a few great epochs have been experienced and realized.

From this perspective, it is the regime itself that politicizes everything to a certain extent. On the contrary, some people who met most of the "human conditions" in Oran did not. Of course, there are also some people who "do not have the courage to face society" in the concept of Elan and only care about their own interests, which is a pity.

Origins of totalitarianism

• Totalitarianism is a new type of regime that cannot be explained by previous political philosophies. His presence makes past moral standards inappropriate.
• Under the claim to abide by the law of the operation of history, claim that ideology is the ultimate goal of mankind's highest goal, and then launch a series of political movements, and think that they are not bound by morality
• Based on this situation, previous anti-moral behaviors are allowed, and even have their inevitability

(Extended series: The Tyrant Crash Guide on Netflix)

Oran explained the Nazi treatment of Jews as an example.

1. Jews travel from country to country and provide financial services as stateless persons , as protected by the regimes of various countries. Stateless people who appear withdrawn and politically apathetic in every country are a group of their own. When totalitarianism rises and nation-states begin to emerge, they are the best scapegoat for the regime's inability to deal with problems.
2. In the process of modernization, the demand for raw materials gave rise to colonialism. The racial superiority and inferiority between the "suzerain" and the "colonies" became the tools of domination and the greatest interests of the suzerain. In the suzerain state, the contradictions between the native people and the ethnic minorities also become tools of governance. The concept of human rights became vague .
3. Totalitarianism relies heavily on totalitarianism to fully control the nation. The "diversified" nation must become single and abandon pluralistic critical thinking. Imposing various ideologies on the literati. They will create their own set of "scientific concepts" or "worldviews", from which everything in the real society is explained, and the "physical reality" recognized by ordinary people disappears.

In such a horrible situation, there will be two classes of society:

The bourgeoisie and the privileged will be eager to participate in political affairs, but see political affairs as a means of increasing their own interests and privileges. They will put civil rights in disregard. It gradually became the "strongman rule" that is very common in Africa. And because the masses lost the "common world" they originally had, their world outlook collapsed. Consciously anchored in a state of nowhere, integrating strongmen provides them with a position to satisfy the human desire to be part of a community as a social animal.

In this case, Oran-style politics completely disappeared. In Olan's definition, politics should not be "manufacturing", and politics is different from the social field. There should be no "violence" and "domination" in politics, and political actions should not be explained by "ends" and "means." From this, three misunderstandings about politics can be summarized: 1) Politics equals administrative management and bureaucratic rule, and 2) Politics is a kind of "similar domination phenomenon" in human beings that has existed since ancient times. Politics is ubiquitous, and the use of violence can be explained by cause and effect. 3) Pursue the simplification of ideals in politics and philosophy, "more than one generation".

It can be seen that modern politics and philosophy regard the world and human affairs as a higher reality and a higher standard in philosophy to transform the imperfections in the primitive realm, and only by voluntarily becoming a perfect human being in the unity can we speak. In Elan's eyes, these are all anti-politics, "the demise of real politics" , and they are just discussing how to escape from politics.

Distinction between public and private domains

This point has a certain importance in "The Origin of Totalitarianism" and "The Condition of Man", which is the difference between "household management" and "city-state affairs". In Elan's theory, the private sphere belongs to the household management, it is the place to create and respond to natural inevitability, and it is also the domain of domination. There is no freedom in the private realm. Only by having the courage to face the social experience can one enter the public realm and become a "free man" . The private sphere is also something that should not be exposed to the light, while the public sphere is open and aboveboard. Satisfaction in the private sphere in ancient times was an entry ticket to the public sphere, but in modern society, it is necessary to get rid of the public sphere to satisfy the private sphere. This is especially evident in the remarks of some Hong Kong residents in the past two years.

The emergence of the social sphere

The social sphere is an "expanded household management", a "family colony" . The embodiment of the social field is the "state". The expansion of society is such that everyone can only live within a certain framework, and everyone is forced to "normalize" . Exclude spontaneous action and blindly follow guidelines. Expansion to the end is mass society and controls all people equally. (Extended reading: Convenience store world, incomplete adults)

Social sciences, statistics, etc. are regarded by Elan as a ruling tool, providing the basis for behavioral science and then creating a single behavioral standard to achieve the simplification pursued by modern political philosophy. And because of this repression of the public sphere, politics and law have been reduced to means of safeguarding private property, as mentioned in the first article. Instead of entering the public domain, property has become the goal of people's life, so that the public no longer pays attention to the construction of the public domain.

Oran-style public domain

There are two important elements in the Oran-style public sphere. The first is that the public and private should not be connected. Another point is that appearance is reality, and the idea of "de-deficiency" and "de-individualization" (de-personalization) is expressed in words to others, and there are no restrictions on the way of expression. It can be seen that the public domain is a kind of private space shared with others, and it is also the world itself. The "common world" consists of multiple cognitions and life experiences of different individuals

The public domain is all about seeing the same world from a different perspective.

human condition

In Elan's politics, the world needs to be made by "makers", the principles are profit and beauty , and the pursuit of " love of this world " rather than the "ideal future world" of traditional philosophy, all of which show Elan's commitment to positive action. Pay attention to.

"With the term vita activa, I propose to designate three fundamental humain activity: labor, work and action"

Labour labor : refers to the process of satisfying the basic physiological needs of human beings, and the infinite cycle between satisfaction and lack. This behavior does not lead to any results and is the least "worldly" kind of behavior. The most cosmopolitan point is that human beings have tried their best to isolate nature. Private sphere behaviors such as home maintenance also belong to this category. In modern society, labor has been excessively promoted to form today's consumer society. As a result, human beings have reduced their attention to the public sphere and become "labor animals", while modern politics has become an open conduct of "private activities."

Work Manufacturing : Refers to the materialization of natural resources by the manufacturer. The "maker" here is synonymous with the "maker" above. Therefore, the world has the characteristics of things , and the maker cannot escape death, but his works can be preserved forever. In Olan's eyes, activities at this level, except for the construction of the world, are essentially "utilitarian" or "utilitarian." There is also a kind of "self-satisfaction" and "self-determination" brought about by destroying and processing nature with "violence". It is also a sense of dominance, an infinite cycle of "ends, means, and results".

Action : The fact that the action points to the diversity of human beings is the privilege of human beings, and it is also the part that can best respond to the political view of Elan. Action necessarily includes speech , and action is only valid when the actor is also the speaker. Everyone moves from the private sphere to the public sphere when they act. And the only benchmark for action is its appearance rather than motives and results, so action is a universal struggle, and everyone wants to show that they are the best.

Actions, however, carry a high degree of uncertainty, because once they start, there are a lot of variables in relation to others. Therefore, action must be like a miracle, a miraculous creation. This also makes the matter of action have a fragile quality, and there is a danger of not being able to achieve it. So taking action is an act of courage.

People should have the courage to pursue the extraordinary.

Freedom is to "do", not just "have"

Freedom and politics are inseparable in Erlan's ideological system. Only in the realm of politics can there be real freedom. For Elan, freedom can only be possessed when people stand up and walk. Freedom equals "freedom of politics" and "freedom of action", and is closely linked to the "presence of others".

Take freedom of thought, for example, when we talk without thinking, we have nothing, and freedom of thought is only achieved when we actually start to think and speak.

Elan does not oppose the passive concept of freedom, such as "not to be disturbed" or "not to be forced", but the freedom at its core is explicit and only exists when it is done and published. Elan-style freedom is clearly opposed to passive-style freedom.

At the same time, Elan criticized the explicit inner freedom of traditional Western philosophy. In traditional Western philosophy, freedom is an image of individual will and choice. It believes that "complete freedom is incompatible with social existence" and completely cuts off the inner connection between freedom and action. Elan is totally against this.

In addition to the obvious features, Elan's words of gaining freedom are linked to "renunciation of sovereignty." Because Elan-style freedom advocates the ability to share happiness with others and to open up new situations with political action in a common world. In this case, in traditional political philosophy, freedom is the inner freedom of thought, or the "absoluteness" and "freedom" of individual will freedom presupposes the negative freedom in traditional liberalism, which are all opposed by Elan.

what is power

Olan opposed power being held by a single person or regime, because for Olan this was an autocratic regime. The supreme power should be pluralistic and decentralized, and the powers must be dispersed and checked against each other . Oran's power is a ephemeral phenomenon that exists only in the public arena where people gather and act. And when the action is not successful, this power will disappear and cannot be stored. It will only appear in the new form when the next activity starts.

The separation and perishability of power will not weaken the power of power. On the contrary, the interaction of checks and balance between powers will produce more power. This is also the reason why Elan prefers a decentralized and federal political system. That's why Elan clearly praised the American-style distribution of power and criticized the distribution of power in the French Revolution in his book On the Revolution.

The American-style distribution of power is layered on top of each other. Everything is built from the bottom up, and there is more space to accommodate diversity on the basis of openness and equality. The establishment of a republic and democratic majority rule is a federation principle based on the combination of powers. The power structure produced by the French Revolution is still a single supreme power without checks and balances, and it is still a kind of strangulation of freedom.

what is authority

In Oran's worldview, power and authority are separate and cannot be mixed. Authority does not come from the oppression of power, nor does it come from the persuasion of argument. Authority is not the violence of power, nor is it a relationship of equality. Quancheng is to connect us with the past experience, so that it will not be broken or forgotten, so that people's actions can be blessed by the past experience and maintain a sense of belonging. It can be said that it is the guide and pillar of a common world, and the old and new worlds are specially connected to provide inspiration for the new generation.

The authority of the layers of experience is at the same time the cornerstone of the common world , bringing a kind of permanence and permanence to the human world. It becomes a point of reference to ensure that the basic principles are not forgotten and that people can reaffirm them again and again in action.

banal evil

There was a political show-style trial of a Nazi war criminal in Israel, and it was this trial that made Elan think about the evil of mediocrity .

The evil of mediocrity is because Erlan discovered that the war criminal was actually an ordinary person, even a good person in the eyes of relatives and friends. But to his own war crimes, he had only Nazi slogans to answer, he couldn't tell right from wrong what he had done to the Jews, he saw himself as a cog in the Nazi machine. From this, Erlan thought about the importance of the ability to "judgment" and the ability to "think".

In the last five years of his life, Erlan began to write "Life of the Mind", but the work was not completed. The focus of this book is the loss of critical thinking and judgment, which is what causes ordinary people to be bestial, and the loss of the ability to think from the perspective of others. In modern society, it is a person who sees himself as a small cog in society and loses the unpredictability of innovation and action.

Thinking is a kind of self-talk . As Adam Smith said, there is a third party in the heart who monitors our behavior and drives away the evil in our hearts. And thought takes us to judgment, which is the most political human faculty. It’s a way to distance ourselves from the norm of society, allowing us to make concrete judgments every time we enter the shared world. And empathy is also an important part of judgment, an openness from the "me" to the "other."

Public spaces are also networks for citizens to communicate, persuade and negotiate with each other. It is not a persistent and substantial existence, but a rare and disappearing existence. Among them, Elan repeatedly emphasized that there should be no domination. The public sphere disappears as soon as coercion and power replace rational communication and equality.