The Wisdom Letter #111
5 quotes from Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)
✹ For today's Wisdom Letter, we have carefully curated five bite-sized quotes from the German-American historian and philosopher, Hannah Arendt (1906–1975).
Quote № 01:
“It is well known that the most radical revolutionary will become a conservative on the day after the revolution.”
— Hannah Arendt
Quote № 02:
“Philosophy is called upon to compensate for the frustrations of politics and, more generally, of life itself.”
— Hannah Arendt, “The Life of the Mind”
Quote № 03:
“There are no dangerous thoughts; thinking itself is dangerous.”
— Hannah Arendt, “The Life of the Mind”
Quote № 04:
“If we do not know our own history, we are doomed to live it as though it were our private fate.”
— Hannah Arendt, “Writing a Woman's Life”
Quote № 05:
“All political institutions are manifestations and materializations of power; they petrify and decay as soon as the living power of the people ceases to uphold them.”
— Hannah Arendt, “Crises of the Republic”
✱✱✱
Support Philosophors:
buymeacoffee.com/philosophors
✺ Today’s Questions
Three philosophical questions to foster your curiosity:
Question № 01:
How has the interpretation of historical events been shaped by the dominant narratives of those in power, and to what extent can historical “truth” ever be truly objective?
Question № 02:
How do power structures maintain their authority through the use of ideology, and to what extent is consent manufactured in both democratic and authoritarian regimes?
Question № 03:
What are the fundamental differences between critical thinking and creative thinking, and how can they complement each other in problem-solving processes?
✽ Thank you for reading today’s Wisdom Letter.
✺ Support Philosophors!
Philosophors is a one-person labor of love, born out of my deep passion for wisdom. I’ve been fortunate enough to sustain this project through the generous donations of my audience, for which I’m incredibly grateful. If you would also like to support and help Philosophors thrive while remaining completely ad-free, please consider making a small donation and joining me on a mission to make wisdom more accessible.
✦ Donate Here → buymeacoffee.com/philosophors
Quote #1: In other words, “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.” Eric Hoffer
I remember watching the film Thor- Ragnorok. In the film it's revealed that the AllFather built his empire through bloodshed, war, and oppression but later on revised and rebranded his rule as one that is peaceful, loving, and paternal. This reminds me of what many conquerors do in real life. After the war is over they either rebrand themselves as peaceful rulers or they turn those they killed into beasts and savages who had it coming.
The historical truth can never be fully objective when the winner is telling the tale. But at the same time, the oppressed can also be guilty of retelling history in a way that absolves them of any wrong doing or fault. Africans were selling slaves long before the Europeans arrived on their shores and that slave trade is what gave them a way to take over not just the slave trade but destabilize the sociopolitical structures that existed during that time. Indigenous tribes and people were at war and had plenty of conflicts with one another before the Europeans arrived giving them the chance to weaponize those poor relations and turn them against each other.
Everyone who tells a historical tale does so to point fingers and make themselves look as good as possible, so with this in mind, can history ever truly be objective?