Ape and Essence: Discussed Through Arendt’s “Banality of Evil” and Foucault’s Terminology

This article will explore Huxley’s society as an outsider, will set out examples of biopolitics in the novel, and will discuss Hanna Arendt’s controversial idea “Banality of Evil” while benefiting from Micheal Foucault’s terminology.

The successfully running political regime in Ape and Essence has its roots in its education system. Being a strong biopolitical tool, the education system is based on repetition and recitation, conditions its attendees and creates made-by-design docile bodies that have no intention or capacity to question. In the novel, Dr Poole is an outsider to the society; therefore, he finds the traditions and beliefs cruel, unacceptable, and evil.

Right here Hanna Arendt’s “Banality of Evil” helps to discuss the evil described in the book. Instead of thinking and judging outside of the box, Arendt looked at the subject from within and redefined evil, claiming that it might not be as evil as we consider it to be. The “evil” system that is controlled by the ones at the top of the pyramid (the pyramid here is the fascist/totalitarian system) invites people to accept their ideas with no physical force or threat, instead with the help of manipulative biopolitical elements. Foucault explains these as the things that are exposed to people that gradually cause a change of behaviour and mindset. This is what Hanna Arendt is trying to draw attention to: How guilty are those people for accepting what they were exposed to? Can Dr Poole blame those people for killing the deformed babies? Can Arendt blame Eichmann for what he believed was the right thing to do?

Hanna Arendt, picture: BBC

Pawns of totalitarian systems are exposed to their doctrines, resulting in an internalisation of the ideas and arguments of the political order. Rulers of those systems use their power to condition and discipline people in order to maintain their supremacy, just like how Arch-Vicor tries to do to Dr Poole or how Hitler did to Eichmann because a totalitarian system cannot exist without a “totality” that blindly believes the order.