Monica Lunin - What She Said

In today's world, Arendt would likely be accused of not ‘managing the optics'. Perhaps her opponents would suggest she was tone-deaf. Long before the era of political correctness, Hannah Arendt demonstrated a willingness to stand by her convictions, to brave the storm of criticism in order to illuminate a deeper truth.

If your perspective is likely to be met with resistance or awkwardness, ask yourself why you need to speak out in the first place. If your reason is in service of a bigger purpose than your own gratification, perhaps you can summon some of Arendt's tenacity. By attaching yourself to a higher goal, you may just find the strength needed to take on questions and face down those who seek to downplay your contribution.

Once you have made the choice and you have taken a stand, you need to stick around for the fallout. Engage with your opponents. Demonstrate a willingness to debate. Be ready to entertain and discuss opposing viewpoints. Do not shrink away and wait for the dust to settle.

So many ideas are swept away because they are difficult to articulate in a ten-second sound bite. Without catchphrases and mnemonics to assist us, we have to really pay attention. A reduced attention span has possibly become more commonplace with the changes in how we now consume media.

Arendt shows us that we needn't reduce our ideas any further than they should be. If meaning is at stake, the right thing to do is err on the side of complexity, but be deliberate in your language, and provide examples and explanations to ensure understanding. Doubting the intelligence of your audience is a mistake. In the long run, ‘dumbing down' your ideas is futile.

When you know you will need to go into some detail in order to explain yourself properly, make sure you have chosen the right forum. Your audience should be prepped. You can indicate, as Arendt does in this interview, you are taking the matter seriously.

In defending your point of view while also communicating complex ideas, you may need to structure, segment and reiterate your points in different ways, for different audiences. Arendt is very clear, almost but not quite to the point of rudeness, in cleaving tone and content. She is aware that her tone may be problematic for some but she is forthright in explaining that her tone, lacking pathos as it does, has no bearing on her central idea — the banality of evil.

After her article was published in the New Yorker , Arendt was criticised by some for being a Nazi sympathiser. Such an attack must have felt deeply personal and unjust. But, in this response, we see Arendt call out the fallacy for what it was, thus reclaiming the higher ground.

Not every criticism is worthy of a response. Often remarks made behind the mask of anonymity, such as social media trolling, are best left to die of natural causes or to be starved of oxygen.

If you find yourself face to face and need to argue your position, you are more likely to triumph if you expose faulty reasoning. Stay calm and don't overreact. Listen carefully for mistakes in the premise of the question or counterargument and respond on that level. Resist being drawn on irrational generalisations. Arendt did not, and should not have had to, defend her non–neo-Nazi status.

In this interview, Arendt cuts across the interviewer, she leans forward, she raises her voice slightly and she punctuates her words. She conveys immediate strength and makes her position known. At times she is willing to sit back and wax philosophical, while at other times she defends.

The world needs your ideas. Your ability to remain steadfast in the face of nastiness will make sure we really hear the crux of what you have to say.

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