- Little Eichmanns
Little Eichmanns is a phrase coined by anarcho-primitivist
John Zerzan [http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/headlines05/0201-05.htm Ward Churchill Statement] , "Daily Camera ",February 1 2005 ] to describe the complicity of those who participate in destructive and immoral systems in a way that, although on an individual scale may seem indirect, when taken collectively have an effect comparable toNazi officialAdolf Eichmann 's role inThe Holocaust . Zerzan used the phrase in his essay "Whose Unabomber?" in1995 .Ward Churchill used the phrase in his essay "Some People Push Back" to describe the technocrats working in the Twin Towers on the morning of theSeptember 11th attacks , because in his opinion their status as drivers of theAmerican empire , participating in sweatshop exploitation, the devastatingIraq sanctions , US support for dictators and attacks against other countries etc. shared similarities withAdolf Eichmann 's bureaucratic participation in theNazi system. [cite web
url=http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read.html?id=2739
title=Ward Churchill's Essay and Statement]Eichmann as a stand-in comes from
Hannah Arendt 's notion of thebanality of evil . Arendt wrote in her 1963 book "" that aside from a desire for improving his career, Eichmann showed no trace ofanti-Semitism or psychological damage. She called him the embodiment of the "banality of evil " as he appeared at his trial to have an ordinary and common personality and displayed neither guilt nor hatred. She suggested that this most strikingly discredits the idea that the Nazi criminals were manifestlypsychopath ic and fundamentally different from ordinary people.ee also
*
Ward Churchill 9/11 essay controversy
*Milgram experiment References
* Hannah Arendt, "Eichmann in Jerusalem," NY: Penguin Books, 1994.
External links
* [http://www.insurgentdesire.org.uk/whoseunabomber.htm Whose Unabomber?] by John Zerzan (first recorded use of term)
* [http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/WC091201.html Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens] by Ward Churchill (notable use of term)
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