Little Eichmann
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Little Eichmann" is a pejorative term suggesting a comparison to Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann. This term was coined by John Zerzan in an essay about the Unabomber, and gained notoriety as a result of its use by Ward Churchill to describe the people in the World Trade Center on September 11th. The term is based on Hannah Arendt's notion of the banality of evil. Arendt wrote in Eichmann in Jerusalem that aside from a desire for improving his career, Eichmann showed no trace of anti-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, displaying neither guilt nor hatred. She suggested that this most strikingly discredits the idea that the Nazi criminals were manifestly psychopathic and fundamentally different from ordinary people.
This term has been mistakenly used to describe a zealous member of an immoral or evil entity, as, for example, in the South Park television episode Die Hippie, Die.
[edit] See also
- John Zerzan (coined term)
- Ward Churchill (notably used term in his controversial 9/11 essay)
[edit] External links
- Whose Unabomber? by John Zerzan (first recorded use of term)
- Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens by Ward Churchill (notable use of term)
