PBS Hannah Arendt Documentary Friday, June 27, 2025

© R.T. Greenwald, 2025. The ideas, arguments, and original frameworks presented here are the intellectual property of the author and require formal citation when referenced or adapted.

This Friday on PBS, American Masters is presenting “Hannah Arendt: Facing Tyranny,” a documentary on Arendt’s life and philosophical influence: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/hannah-arendt-documentary/36135/. This webpage can connect you with local listings.

Based on the preview, it looks like the documentary will focus at least partly on Arendt’s observations about the United States in the 1960s and early 1970s:

If you want to discuss, use the Elephant in the Room chat or the comments section below.

I have no access to the film before Friday, but here are some guesses about things to consider in light of 1) the US bombing of Iranian nuclear enrichment sites; and 2) Trump temporarily halting the deportation of migrant farm labor and hotel workers, then resuming:

• How does the use of force at home and abroad have the potential to push back against authoritarianism as well as promote it?
• What do the chosen targets communicate about preferred national stories and priorities? What does public reaction to the use of force reveal about inconsistencies in our national story?

In our next conversation on The Origins of Totalitarianism, I’ll be focusing on propaganda and how, according to Arendt, it takes advantage of imperialism’s socio-economic effects. Understanding how 19th-century European imperialism impacted employment and a sense of national belonging may be relevant to “Hannah Arendt: Facing Tyranny” as the 1960s were heavily dominated by the USA’s flexing of international muscle. National stories are made and broken under these conditions.

In the meantime, here are some Arendt quotes that consider how the public makes sense of the turmoil around them in politically dangerous times. Who are the prophets? Who is delivering the prophecy?

“The revolt of the masses against ‘realism,’ common sense, and all ‘the plausibilities of the world’ (Burke) was the result of their atomization, of their loss of social status along with which they lost the whole sector of communal relationships in whose framework common sense makes sense” (461).

“The propaganda effect of infallibility, the striking success of posing as a mere interpreting agent of predictable forces, has encouraged in totalitarian dictators the habit of announcing their political intentions in the form of prophecy” (457).

“The language of prophetic scientificality corresponded to the needs of masses who had lost their home in the world and now were prepared to be reintegrated into eternal, all-dominating forces which by themselves would bear man, the swimmer on the waves of adversity, to the shores of safety” (459).

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