Hannah Arendt<\/a> was an influential German-Jewish political theorist. Often described as a philosopher (a label she refuted), Arendt\u2019s work dealt with the nature of power and the subjects of politics, authority, and totalitarianism\u2014 with much of her work focusing on affirming a conception of freedom which is synonymous with collective political action among equals. She theorized that freedom was \u201cpublic and associative.\u201d<\/p>\nA selection of \u201cquotables\u201d by Arendt that I find interesting:<\/span><\/p>\n+ \u00a0 + \u00a0 +<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nIn order to go on living one must try to escape
\nthe death involved in perfectionism.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nForgiveness is the key to action and freedom.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nRevolutionaries do not make revolutions. The revolutionaries are those who know when power is lying in the street and then they can pick it up.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nThe most radical revolutionary will become a conservative
\nthe day after the revolution.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nIt is my contention that civil disobediences are nothing but the latest form of voluntary association, and that they are thus quite in tune with the oldest traditions of the country.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nNothing we use or hear or touch can be expressed
\nin words that equal what is given by the senses.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nOnly the mob and the elite can be attracted by the momentum of totalitarianism itself. The masses have to be won by propaganda.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nUnder conditions of tyranny it is far easier to act than to think.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nThere are no dangerous thoughts;
\nthinking itself is dangerous.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nWhat really distinguishes this generation in all countries from earlier generations… is its determination to act, its joy in action, the assurance of being able to change things by one’s own efforts.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nPoets are the only people to whom love is not only a crucial, but an indispensable experience, which entitles them to mistake it for a universal one.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nStorytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n+\u00a0\u00a0 + \u00a0 +<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n(It seems I\u2019m into philosophers of late\u2026)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hanover, Germany Hannah Arendt was an influential German-Jewish political theorist. Often described as a philosopher (a label she refuted), Arendt\u2019s work dealt with the nature of power and the subjects of politics, authority, and totalitarianism\u2014 with much of her work focusing on affirming a conception of freedom which is synonymous with collective political action among […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,7,13,14,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2073"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2073"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16298,"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2073\/revisions\/16298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertlpeters.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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