The Banality of Evil

One meaning of the phrase, "the banality of evil," coined by Hannah Arendt reporting for the New Yorker on Adolf Eichmann's trial in Jerusalem for war crimes, is that the evil do not always give the appearance of monsters. Arendt saw no satanic genius in Eichmann, just an ordinary man, perhaps even a clown. And now we see our clownish, banal, very ordinary president and his banal, ordinary cabinet and banal, ordinary Republican henchmen rapidly erode our freedoms and democracy. Time to fight vigorously now, as Trump et.al. most heinous actions are normalized for a very ordinary and banal third of the electorate.

Necrophilic Narcissism and Donald Trump

Eric Fromm coined the term "necrophilic narcissism" in his book, Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, as he probed the extremes of human evil. In this syndrome, the ordinary narcissist's selfishness and lack of empathy and insight is infused with sadistic joy in the sufferings, more, actual destruction, of others, whose humanity the necrophilic narcissist can not feel. Often, these people seem ordinary and do not understand that what they are doing is wrong, as Hannah Arendt observed of Adolf Eichmann in his war crimes trial, citing "the banality of evil."
My parents were Holocaust-involved and, early in Donald Trump's campaign, I recognized something. A bully. A man who enjoys humiliating others. A pathological need for attention. An inability to understand honesty or integrity. The love of scapegoating. Bigotry. A person who doesn't care, in every sense of the phrase, about anyone except himself. People told me I was foolish to be alarmed, that he could never win the Republican nomination. Now they tell me he can't win the presidency. Are you sure? Really sure? It's important not to miss on this one.
I want to fight him now. While I still can. Please, tell me how.