Responsibility Predicaments And Solution Of Totalitarianism

Totalitarianism is the core event of the 20 th century, this unprecedented crime breaks the categories and criteria of judgment which people relied on before. People lose the spirit support, and become confused. All these things led to ongoing discussions on the issues of ethical and responsibilities. First of all, the distinction about liability is made by Arendt in response to the Eichmann trial and how to determine the scope of responsibility and the decision of guilt is the basic issue of the Eichmann trial. In Arendt's opinion, it is possible for a person to be responsible for what he has not done. To bear the cost of other people's action, is the foundation of the Community, and also is the reflection of their own political action: as human's superior political ability, political action must be achieved in the political community. On this basis, Arendt refutes the theory of Jewish being completely "innocent". She believes that the cost of collective irresponsibility is much higher than the cost of collective responsibility. Arendt stressed that collective responsibility is a kind of political responsibility, but there is no collective guilt exists. So Arendt refutes "cog-theory" and “lesser evil”theory, and makes a distinction between collective responsibility and individual guilt, and she denies the view of “everyone is guilty”.“The banality of evils”, is a special term that Arendt used in reporting Eichmann trial.She believes that the real evil needs to judgment and choose and also needs to acknowledge and assume responsibilities for the adverse consequences. “The banality of evils”is anti-ideological and anti-intellectual, on the other hand, because of refusing to use their own judgment, it is unimaginative and inelegance. The Eichmann, their unquestioning obedience to the order of state suspends thinking and judgment actually, they refuse to make any responsible judgment and attribute their personal responsibility to the action of state. Arendt re-studies the person's ability to think and to judge from the perspective of moral standards collapse. She thinks that people have a fear of judgment in our society at any time, but man does have an ability to make rational judgments which won't be confused by any emotion or selfish, and this ability will not be bound by the individual event or individual standards. Every people watch and judge the world from their positions, then guidelines for the world continue to produce. Only in this way can we have a foothold on this shaky moral ground.Therefore, the purpose of studying Arendt collective responsibility and individual responsibility of totalitarianism, is to explore that how human beings to distinguish right and wrong and make a responsible judgment and actions through their own capabilities, namely thinking, will and judging when facing moral standards collapse. Of course, people may be forced to the pressure under the authority, but what we're thinking about is that everyone should develop the habit of independent thinking and thinking for others. And all these things may avoided the occurrence of disasters someday in the future, at least to ourselves. Even if this happens again, those who make the judgment right and conscientious will become a model like a ray of light in the dark,which will light beam through time and space to illuminate this world.