On April 11, 1961, a monster was put on trial in the state of Israel and broadcasted to the world.

The monster, who was housed in a glass box, was accused of crimes against humanity and

the Jewish people, of knowingly sending hundreds of thousands of people to their deaths.

When the trial commenced and the monster was asked how he pleaded, he answered not guilty in the sense of the indictment.

As the trial proceeded, the monster portrayed himself as a cog in a machine, a cog that was merely performing its duty.

To some who observed the trial, the monster who sat before them appeared all too human. Behind the glass there

was no demonic essence of evil. The monster was, in fact, an average person, a normal

person who was capable of committing terrifyingly evil acts. One observer went as far as to

say that the manner in which the accused spoke and the way he framed his story was evidence that he simply lacked the ability to think.

To this observer, it was no radical evil-doer who sat in the glass box. His professed motives and his inability to avoid cliches were evidence of his banality.

Hello and welcome to episode 111 of the Panseye cast. I'm Jack Symes. I'm joined once again

by Mr. Oli-Mali. Hello. And it's with great pleasure though. Welcome back Mr. Andrew Horton.

Hello. How have you been, Andy? It's been far too long. I've been very well. Since we did the episode talking about the book, and that was back in October of 2021. Our book, by the way, which is still on Amazon. You can buy the book if that is what you're wishing to do. And yeah, it's really nice to be back. Of course, the topic that we're covering today,

kind of is one of those ones where I've known about Hannah Arendt for quite a long time.

Of course, you can't not have heard about Eichmann and Jerusalem

and her concept of the banality of evil.

If you've covered anything covering the Holocaust.

So it was something that I was conscious of,

but hadn't actually engaged with properly.

I had never read through the entirety of Eichmann and Jerusalem.

I'd used passages of it before when talking about it in lessons.

So it was actually,

...