Hannah Arendt, The Freedom To Be Free
Arendt actually acknowledges how 'topical' ( announcing ahead of her time how redundant and archetypical the study of post world war two theory actually becomes the neo -liberal antithesis to progress in the modern fixation and fetishization of nazi culture and that of its surrounding distortions to the future of humanitarianism ). Assuming that the text had been published after her work 'On Revolution' the work references and the historical context of the revolutions that had incurred within the time frame of both world war one and world war two. "“Still, in the world’s present configuration where, for better or worse, revolutions have become the most significant and frequent events—and this will most likely continue for decades to come—it would not only be wiser but also more relevant if, instead of boasting that we are the mightiest power on earth, we would say that we have enjoyed an extraordinary stability since the founding of our republic, and that this stability was the direct outgrowth of revolution.”( 14 ) Arendt acts as a catalyst almost to the circumstantial occurrence introducing the violence of revolution into society. She talks about The Bay of Pigs in the overthrow of Fidel Castro, emphasizing the suffering of the people although also reinstating that it was a result of a malfunctioning security breach. Paralleling this example to the French Revolution and reasserting the importance of Immanuel Kant and Condorcet, asserting that revolution is necessary in order for the society to experience freedom. Interestingly enough she also states that the word revolution in itself is not used in the regular vocabulary of the time although more-so resurfacing and structuralizing the 17th century meaning mostly refering to the astrological meaning through the sun and ( for example, the copernican revolution of the earth ), the eternal cosmos, and the universal structure in contradiction to the cataclysm of anarchy and rebellion in the political term. “Hence, what actually happened at the end of the eighteenth century was that an attempt at restoration and recovery of old rights and privileges resulted in its exact opposite: a progressing development and the opening up of a future which defied all further attempts at acting or thinking in terms of a circular or revolving motion.” ( 20 ). The nature of revolution was necessary for people to experience freedom, 'by god's blessing restored' the nature of freedom through the oppression felt in order for revolution to incur.
Excerpt From: Hannah Arendt. “The Freedom to Be Free.” Apple Books.
Excerpt From: Hannah Arendt. “The Freedom to Be Free.” Apple Books.