How Modern Hatred Took Shape
The hatred that later became central to totalitarian rule was not just a cheap political trick, and it was not an eternal force of human nature. It grew out of specific historical changes in Europe. To understand it, Arendt rejects simple explanations like scapegoating alone or blind nationalism alone. Those ideas contain part of the truth, but they miss the deeper political breakdown that made this hatred so powerful.
One important change was the weakening of the old nation-state. Modern antisemitism rose just as the political structures that had once organized European life were beginning to crack. This hatred was not simply a patriotic passion tied to one country. It often had an international character, spreading across borders and presenting itself as a larger explanation for the troubles of the age.
Another key point is the uneasy relationship between wealth and power. People often accept power when it clearly serves a public function, even if they dislike it. Wealth without visible political responsibility, however, easily appears useless, secretive, and parasitic. Once Jews in Europe lost much of their older political usefulness but remained visible in finance and public imagination, resentment toward them deepened.
That is why the idea of random scapegoating is not enough. The victims were innocent, but they were not chosen at random. They occupied a very specific place in European history, tied to the rise and decline of the modern state. When political systems began to fail, that old position made them especially vulnerable.
Arendt insists that these events were made by human beings and can be understood through history, not myth. If hatred is treated as a timeless mystery, then no one is responsible and nothing can be learned. The real story lies in the changing ties between the state, society, class, and those groups that stood both inside and outside ordinary political life.
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