The following article was written by Associate Professor Aparna Mishra Tarc was published on Philosophers for Ukraine.
On Thinking in a War
Of all philosophers, only a woman speaks out decisively against tyranny, totalitarianism and war. Hannah Arendt advanced reading, studying, writing, and speaking of world events to develop a discerning form of political philosophical judgment. Witness is critical to Arendt's engagement of current and political events.
As Arendt once witnessed the horrors of World War II, we now watch the unthinkable event of mass social hatred and tyranny unfold in Ukraine. War is supremacist at its core where it is waged. It is the epitome of a world teetering on political breakdown. War is social hatred's last resort, one festering catatonically beneath the reasonable veneer of the social. Despots understand this better than anyone my dad taught me: the hatred of one or many men can turn the world against you overnight, as it did to the people of Ukraine.
Concerned with worldly affairs, Arendt did not deal with particulars. This is, perhaps, a hard limit to her thinking. I have no such reservation. The vile supremacy undergirding the disease and tyranny in our time is parochial and small. It is white/elite classes, male and heteronormative. I will reserve judgment on whether it is strictly Euro-American or not, as I watch the strong men of India, China, Philippines, Turkey wage genocidal war on minority populations with Putin-like fervor.
Read the full story on the Philosophers for Ukraine website.