I'm native German and I still have to concentrate on everything she says to understand. It's not a nice chat you can easily follow while doing something else. P.S.: I'm impressed by every non native German speaker who understands what she says.

@@hurtigheinz3790 na ja? Mein Deutsch ist nicht perfekt aber ich verstehe sie relative gut, besser als 'normale Leute,' vielleicht weil ich Professorin and Akademiker bin?

@@helenemasour9256 Wahrscheinlich :) Ich meine auch nicht, dass es schwierige und lange Formulierungen sind. Es ist die Bedeutung und der Kontext ihr sorgfältig gewählten Worte.

@@hurtigheinz3790 Klar. Man muss mehr als ein Mal hören. Ich vermisse Deutsch!

@@helenemasour9256 Wenn Sie herausfinden wollen wie gut Ihr Deutsch ist, dann kann ich hier auf KZfaq Videos von "Jochen Malmsheimer" empfehlen. Nicht der Anspruch einer Hannah Arendt, aber ein Wortakrobat und Kabarettist, dem auch einige deutsche Muttersprachler nicht folgen können.

It is a treasure indeed. Never did I think that I would encounter this interview. What a gift that we have this,

Hey Zdillz. I'm curious to read some of those texts. Do you remember their titles?

I should probably be very surprised, by how I did not even know of this lady until today. Never heard of her in school when growing up in Germany. Too close to postwar? Who knows, but there are so many authors I never knew about but later on learned about.

@@dm5129 it is not surprise to me that you did not learn about Arendt in school. As a West Germany Gymnasiast, the structure of our system did not really allow for "outside reading." I knew of her mostly because my parents were university professors. She also references other 20th century greats - Jaspers, her advisor - who was also rarely, if ever, treated 40 years ago in school in Germany

I was thinking something similar (as a migrant in Britain, which can probably be as unsettling as living in Trump's America). I need to start reading her works. I stumbled upon Hannah Arendt at the public library today. It was sheer coincidence that made me spot the DVD of the film about her displayed on a shelf, but I already happened to be reading "Cruelty" by Kathleen Taylor - haven't gotten far yet. Taylor points out, more or less, that people use something called otherization. I think she first explains it as a way for people to distance themselves from cruelty, namely by seeing cruelty as something that is only done by evil others - allowing them to consider what they do themselves as "not cruelty". There is a different form of otherization at work as well, she then continues and that is probably a more familiar form of otherization. I put it as follows. You can do anything you want to a banana peel, and people like Donald Trump and also Theresa May and many others essentially declare that certain human beings are like banana peels. I had never personally experienced something like that before I moved to Britain and it's had a very profound effect on my life. It is opening my eyes to what many people experience, for a wide range of reasons. It scares me. It also often makes me powerless and angry. I was working on creating an online course as a way to do my bit in this area, but I sometimes struggle with keeping my own hurt and anger out of it, depending on what is going on in my life. (I was creating a course video today and ended up yelling very angrily into the camera that I was fed up with all the local crap.) I'd been trying to keep my personal experiences out of it and that was probably the wrong thing to do. So what Arendt says about having to defend yourself as a Jew when you are being attacked for being a Jew is giving me pause. I initially had the feeling that standing up for myself and calling out what is happening could be making things worse (because it felt divisive, and as finger-pointing), but I have increasingly been getting the feeling that I was wrong. It is what it is and me trying to ignore it or making it prettier than it is is not going to make it go away. To the contrary. And it isn't me "being whiny" either. Far from.

Which country are you from?

excellent comment

How did it go?

Good job otherizing those "dark forces of hatred" I guess

i would say that's something that mostly comes across in the translation, in german her sentences are actually very long and complex

jan coil - Oh, I don’t know about that...have you seen Wendy Williams interview Kim Kardashian or Bill O’Reilly do Ivanka? Stellar.

Your hollow comment is a perfect example of today's communicational routine

Anton Burkin - Nonsense. The riveting content and unrivalled eloquence of today’s talk shows would have Demosthenes drooling from the steps of the Pnyx and Cicero green with envy on the Senate floor.

@@dorianphilotheates3769 LOL

If we could bring her back today, I would have loved to see Jimmy Fallon interviewing Arendt.

few

Paola Greco She had a courage as rare as Plato. She didn't give a fig about the status quo, and understood social duty better than any thinker of her century. I wish I had met her. I would thank her for her writing, and would say to all I know: We can do anything, but we must think about it first, and foremost, about our duties to society. More than ever, now that #Trump is the US President, we need people like her.

​@@chopin65 completely agreed. I, too, wish I was born early so that I could meet her.

@@chopin65 is it why you posed the question in the original comment, so that you can write down what you wanted in form of an answer....

@@kot3291 Now why would you ask such a convoluted question, ffs? Jeezuz, buddy!

Gunter Gaus (in the seventies representing West Germany in Ost Berlin) is not interrupting and is prepared. A big difference to the Tosser community called journalism nowadays.

Watch Chris Hedges, Noam Chomsky

Karl Jasper is even better (aber der spricht ja richtig platt (deutsch)

Är

The subtitles don't really fit what she says though. She's way more eloquent in German and knows how to make small distinctions. The Engilsh translation is a broad summary of what she says. Not wrong - just not covering her little winks.

Haydee oder Heidi? :)

I felt that too, but I'm slightly ashamed about it :))

Jah!

I heard even philosophy students who are German read the English books about German philosophers because it is easier to understand than the original writings

Yeah, I've almost never been able to take an english speaker seriously.

@@charlesbourgoigne2130 Could you tell me the word in german translated as venture? Thank you!

Kind of a funny comment having heard Hannah's opinions of intellectualism....but, I think I now understand her humor in a way.

Underaged comment

@@nccumolly1125 Arrogant comment (Ok, come on people, let's keep this going, seems like a fun game, trash each other.....yay humanity! Do me, do me!!!!)

Philippe Fritsch The specificity of German words lend absolute clarity to technical writing(my area). As you pointed out, the German language leaves little room for ambiguity. If I desire to understand a concept precisely, a paper written in German will accomplish that beautifully. I cringe whenever Ihear a German word used in a situation for which it was not intended.

Ambroid Phlexes Even in French, which is almost opposite to German for its flexibility, vocabulary remains extremely precise as far as the context is well built up. It is just like surfing on top of a wave, since the listener, or reader, knows that it could so easily be different. And, as Albert Camus pointed out: « A mal nommer les choses, on ajoute au malheur du monde ». No doubt Hannah Arendt was aware of that…

Philippe Fritsch Hannah Arendt was more than fluent in English (although she spoke with a strong German accent). Her ideas can be fairly and reasonably evaluated or attacked or defended (or, for that matter, unfairly and unreasonably) without recourse to German.

@@philippefritsch1892 Hence why Camus was no poet...

Right

True. But it can be totally forced to sound well in places it shouldn't as well. Take for example the Champagne aria when sung by Fischer-Diskeau. It's simply superhuman that this aria can sound well in German.

@@gamer-ff6mh Wow. I'm about to listen to it, then.

"Co-ordination" is the word she tended to use in her English writings, e.g. in "Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship"

motherly seems a strange word for her. I think mentor would be better word to describe her

@@WA-ek9mu Oh stop nitpicking ffs 🙄

@@tweedledee2781 This is not nitpicking. Mother and mentor are completely different. Are you illiterate?

@@WA-ek9mu Yes it IS nitpicking! Are you an inbred idjit?🙄

You should to read any book at least twice

Isaiah Berlin has a great online interview with Bryan Magee where he starts Magee's series (which totalled about 30 interviews) -- almost all are available on youtube.

Would you know where to find it?

+BigHeartBreak93 thanks for the heads up

+Kyle Waterbury All good.

Sometimes it's a lot more than slightly...