Walter Benjamin knew that the break in tradition and loss of authority which occurred in his lifetime were … - Hannah Arendt

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Initially let your food do the talking. You'll be surprised how far you go in a short period of time.

Hannah Arendt

Walter Benjamin knew that the break in tradition and loss of authority which occurred in his lifetime were irreparable, and he concluded that he had to discover new ways of dealing with the past. In this he became a master when he discovered that the transmissibility of the past had been replaced by the citability and that in place of its authority there had arisen a strange power to settle down, piecemeal, in the present and to deprive it of ‘peace of mind,’ the mindless peace of complacency.

Loss, Past, Mind, Down, Replaced, Complacency

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The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.

Fiction, People, Rule, True, True And False

the greater the bureaucratization of public life, the greater will be the attraction of violence. In a fully developed bureaucracy there is nobody left with whom one can argue, to whom one can represent grievances, on whom the pressures of power can be exerted. Bureaucracy is the form of government in which everybody is deprived of political freedom, of the power to act; for the rule by Nobody is not no-rule, and where all are equally powerless we have a tyranny without a tyrant.

Act, Bureaucratization, Government, Political, Tyrants

Politically speaking, tribal nationalism [patriotism] always insists that its own people are surrounded by 'a world of enemies' - 'one against all' - and that a fundamental difference exists between this people and all others. It claims its people to be unique, individual, incompatible with all others, and denies theoretically the very possibility of a common mankind long before it is used to destroy the humanity of man.

Common, Differences, Fundamental, Individual, Men, Unique

When evil is allowed to compete with good, evil has an emotional populist appeal that wins out unless good men and women stand as a vanguard against abuse.

Appeal, Good, Peace, War, Winning, Wins

Politically, the weakness of the argument has always been that those who choose the lesser evil forget very quickly that they chose evil.

Argument, Chose, Evil, Lesser, Quickly, Weakness