Medlet tränger undan målet - Hannah Arendt

Med instrumentellt handlande där ett medel ska uppnå ett framtida mål blir risken stor att medlet tränger undan målet.

”the means-end category, whose chief characteristic, if applied to human affairs, has always been that the end is in danger of being overwhelmed by the means which it justifies and which are needed to reach it Since the end of human action, as distinct from the end products of fabrication, can never be reliably predicted, the means used to achieve political goals are more often than not of greater relevance to the future world than the intended goals.”1

Per Herngren

7 oktober 2026, version 0.1

Fotnot

1. Hannah Arendt, On violence, San Diego, NY, London: Harvest/HBJ Book, 1970, s 4.

Makthavare existerar inte - Hannah Arendt

Hannah Arendt visar att det inte går att ha makt. Istället är det förmågan som kommer med lydnad eller samverkan som är makt. 

”Power corresponds to the human ability not just to act but to act in concert. Power is never the property of an individual; it belongs to a group and remains in existence only so long as the group keeps together. When we say of somebody that he is ’in power’ we actually refer to his being empowered by a certain number of people to act in their name. The moment the group, from which the power originated to begin with (potestas in populo, without a people or group there is no power), disappears, ’his power' also vanishes."1

Som Mohandas Gandhi är Hannah Arendt vad jag kallar en makthavare-ateist. Det går inte att äga makt. "Power is never the property of an individual".

Per Herngren
7 oktober 2026

Fotnot

1. Hannah Arendt,On violence, San Diego, NY, London: Harvest/HBJ Book, 1970, s 44.