Hannah Arendt

the banalization of human life and the COVID-19 pandemic, in Brazil

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a new reality to Brazil and, with it, the need to discuss new ethical and legal issues. In this sense, one may ask whether there is (or could be) a relationship between the Brazilian reality during the national COVID-19 health crisis and Hannah Arendt's concept of the “banality of evil.” In other words, this is equivalent to asking what is more important: saving lives or the country's economy? Preserving the right to life or individual freedoms? Given circumstances in whicha country's healthcare system is overwhelmed, with no hospital beds available for all serious cases of the disease, would it be ethical to choose who would be prioritized for an ICU bed, a young person or an elderly one? The expression referring to the “banality of evil” is found in the book Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963) by Hannah Arendt (1906-1975), where the author discusses the issue of “banal evil.” This theme is compared with some facts that occurred during the pandemic. In other words, in the context of the scarcity of resources experienced during the health crisis, the importance of an individual's responsibility for the lives of others was addressed, not as lives that deserve (or do not) to be lived, but as their equals in the right to life and health. Arendt's concept of the banality of evil is related to the absence of thought, to a state of mind that allows a “normal” individual to perform (or support) actions without necessarily intending to, taking pleasure in, or benefiting from the suffering of others, but which, due to their results, are evil. This evil arises from an individual's inability to establish a silent relationship with him or herself, which is essential to the act of thinking. The text seeks to analyze the responsibility of each individual in the communal life of a given community, from an Arendtian perspective.