How Evil Can Recruit and Drive Group Actions

17/04/2025 58 min

                    How Evil Can Recruit and Drive Group Actions

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Episode Synopsis


On this podcast episode of Global Stuff, host Jimmy Durchslag talkswith 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 theNew School under the direction of Hannah Arendt. Following twenty-five years as a Core Professor in the Graduate School ofInterdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the Union Institute she was aprofessor of moral philosophy at Queens University. Minnick is aDistinguished Fellow at the Association of American Colleges andUniversities in Washington, DC. She is also the author of Transforming Knowledge (Temple University Press, 1990, 2005) and co-author of TheFox 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, engagedscholarship, curricula, teaching, and institutional practices.
Jimmy Durchslag has been the host of “Global Stuff”, a monthly guestdriven talk show for over 20 years. He has interviewed many prominentscholars and leaders who clarify complex issues and providesuggestions for positive change. He has a long experience as a managerof several for profit and non-profit organizations. He is one of thefounders of Redwood Community Radio, the parent organization forKMUD. He recently served as the Director of the Mainstream MediaProject, a nonprofit organization that scheduled expert guests forinterviews on talk shows both nationally and internationally.