It certainly helps to know that you are not alone, that there are others who are willing to resist, that there are those who have done so in the past. But often something still holds us back. Eichmann’s seeming normalcy supplied us, thanks to Hannah Arendt, with the notion of the banality of evil. Zimbardo, in his recent writing, emphasizes the “banality of heroism.” As discussed in various chapters, people who heroically refuse to look the other way, who do the right thing even when it carries the ultimate cost—tend to be surprisingly normal. The stars didn’t align at their births; doves of
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