The precise meaning of the concept has been heavily debated by academics, but a common reading suggests evil things can be done by bland, bureaucratic people who don\u2019t think critically, rather than natural villains. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt strikes me that those corporate bosses today \u2013 and, frankly, complicit politicians \u2013 are a truer form of the banality of evil, because though they will never personally come so close, as Eichmann did, to transporting human souls to the gas chambers, collectively their actions are far more consequential,\u201d Abel said during the debate.<\/p>\n
Act MP Simon Court raised a point of order taking issue with the comment, but Deputy Speaker Barbara Kuriger didn\u2019t ask Abel to withdraw. <\/p>\n
Abel continued: \u201cMay I express, to complete the idea, that the concept of the banality of evil implies that there is a sort of blandness to an action that has a terrible consequence.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, our whole planet is being, effectively, gassed. The consequence of that is not six million deaths but tens of millions and hundreds of millions of deaths.\u201d <\/p>\n
Six million Jews died in the Holocaust. <\/p>\n
The Holocaust Centre chairwoman, Deborah Hart, said the \u201cbanality of evil\u201d has been invoked in many political debates.<\/p>\n
\u201cInvoking that concept, together with the imagery of the gas chambers, both risks misrepresenting Arendt and diminishing the historical enormity of the Holocaust, and it does nothing to shine a light on what is essentially a policy disagreement. <\/p>\n
The Holocaust Centre chairwoman Deborah Hart says the \u201cbanality of evil\u201d has been used in a number of political debates.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Holocaust has important lessons for society. They should be discussed and learnt. But comparisons between those responsible for the machinery of the Holocaust, and politicians and businesses involved in contemporary policy debates risks trivialising the Holocaust.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hart said the comments were offensive and Abel should apologise. <\/p>\n
Speaking to Newstalk ZB, Abel said he stood by his comments. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn no way did I diminish the horrors of the Holocaust. It\u2019s a touchstone for how terribly wrong humanity can go when unthinking actions are taken by functionaries that can lead to a horrid death toll.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say it\u2019s an even more banal situation we\u2019re in now, because people aren\u2019t intending to harm future generations, but their actions will do exactly that. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe consequences of our inaction on climate change, at a political and corporate level, are untold human suffering.\u201d <\/p>\n
He also said his reference to the planet being \u201cgassed\u201d was a reference to greenhouse gases, not Nazi gas chambers. <\/p>\n
Asked about the comments, Greens co-leader Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick said Abel\u2019s point on the banality of evil was a fair one. <\/p>\n
\u201cPlenty of legislators in this place, myself included, have pointed to the concept of banality of evil on issues such as abuse in state care.\u201d <\/p>\n
Asked twice whether the comments were acceptable, Swarbrick wouldn\u2019t address the question directly. <\/p>\n
\u201cSteve made his points in the chamber. At the end of the day, what we are talking about here is the real, existential threat of climate change.<\/p>\n
\u201cSteve will clarify. But the point he was making was one about the banality of evil.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abel confirmed he spoke with Hart on Tuesday, and she asked him to be more careful with his words. <\/p>\n
Abel said she didn\u2019t ask for an apology. <\/p>\n
Ethan Griffiths is a political reporter with Newstalk ZB, based in the Parliamentary Press Gallery. He joined NZME as a print journalist in 2020, previously working as an Open Justice reporter in the Bay of Plenty and Wellington, and as a general reporter in Whanganui.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The precise meaning of the concept has been heavily debated by academics, but a common reading suggests evil…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[40546,74,52687,17517,1559,1550,12974,23552,4442,6129,15166,156,124723,2518,32425,78,2442,100804,111,139,69,24637,6046,9345,5132,61,1533],"class_list":["post-580328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-abel","tag-after","tag-apologise","tag-because","tag-called","tag-centre","tag-change","tag-claimed","tag-climate","tag-crimes","tag-deaths","tag-entertainment","tag-exceed","tag-green","tag-holocaust","tag-in","tag-links","tag-nazis","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-parliament","tag-potential","tag-speech","tag-steve","tag-to","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}