The self-conscious intellectual Hannah Arendt saw Eichmann as “banal” therefore
the “banality of evil”. But from a position of less superiority, a synonym would be ordinary.
Evil is evil – as most understand it. Naming it “banal” seemed to make it worse. But is recognizing the scope of the potential evil of a common, ordinary man better?
Stephen Lapeyrouse . . . Notes Dropped Along the Way 