ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Hannah Arendt

Okay kiddo, let me explain Hannah Arendt to you in a way that's easy to understand.

Hannah Arendt was a very important thinker and writer from a long time ago. She's super famous because she had lots of really interesting things to say about politics and the way people act in groups.

One of her biggest ideas was something called "the banality of evil." This means that even though bad things can happen because of the actions of some people, those people might not actually be evil themselves. Instead, they might just be going along with what everyone else is doing, even if it's wrong.

Arendt also talked a lot about freedom and responsibility. She believed that people should be free to think and act for themselves, but that also meant they had to take responsibility for their choices. She thought that people who didn't take responsibility for their actions were actually giving up their freedom.

Overall, Hannah Arendt was very smart and she had a lot of thoughts about how people should act and think in the world. People still read and talk about her ideas today, even though she lived a long time ago.