I don’t love people

‘I’ve never loved any people or collective group.’ Hannah Arendt makes it very clear in this interview that belonging to a group should never be mistaken with love. (Starting at 50'50".) I would also add that by aspiring group memberships in our lives, we simultaneously limit our capacity to experience love.

Listening to Hannah Arendt is a treat. Her integrity and calmness is extraordinary and there is a timelessness about her intellect and moral compass. The interview is full of insights. Here’s one: men want to be influential whereas she just wants to understand and that is the reason she writes. She can’t retain enough information in her head, writing extends the limits of her memory. Writing for her is an internal aspiration fueled by the desire to understand and not by a desire to influence.

I also found the aesthetics and the type of shots and cuts delightful to watch. Not to mention the smoking and lighting of cigarettes throughout the interview!

The very end of the interview is something truly special. The interviewer refers to a quote by her mentor and father figure, Karl Jaspers. She responds ‘Venture is only possible when there is a trust in mankind. A trust which is hard to formulate. But one which is fundamental. A trust in what is human in all people. Otherwise such a venture is impossible.’ And then no words are being spoken for a few seconds — unprecedented in any other parts of the interview. Truly powerful moment that you will only get if you watch the whole interview.