Chris Evans Has Discovered Jewish Philosopher Hannah Arendt
The Marvel universe has announced a follow up to its popular superhero ensemble films, to be titled “Avengers: The Origins of Totalitarianism.”
We kid, but you’d watch, right?
Captain America himself, actor Chris Evans, has discovered the 20th century German Jewish political philosopher Hannah Arendt, and he wants the world to know. Just under 140,000 fans of the Hollywood A-lister have been turned on to the famous chronicler of the Eichmann trials via a tweet Evans posted on Monday night.
I mean…#historyrepeats pic.twitter.com/H9rIT8mDo3
— Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) May 21, 2019
The tweet in question features a photograph of a paragraph from Arendt’s 1951 work “The Origins Of Totalitarianism,” which analyzes the rise of totalitarianism through Nazism and Stalinism. The book, one of Arendt’s most famous, dissects the threads of 20th century totalitarianism, starting with its roots in anti-Semitism. In the paragraph he posted, Evans highlighted a specific quote: “Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it.”
Added Evans, “I mean…” He also included the hashtag “History repeats.”
Oh, Chris! We love imagining him blinking his foot-long eyelashes so he can focus on Arendt’s reading of the anti-Semitic Dreyfus Affair! Did he, too, gasp over her peerless ability to drive language, tank-like, through centuries of anti-Semitic ideas? Did his heart pang with longing for his ex-lover, Jewish actress Jenny Slate, at each of Arendt’s 1,498 uses of the word “Jew” in the book? (Yes, that’s right, we looked it up.)
God speed in your education of the American public, Chris. We honor you now, by ranking Famous Hollywood Chris-es by how likely we think they are to have heard of Hannah Arendt:
1.Chris Evans
Evans: King of Chris-es, defender of human freedoms, amateur student of totalitarianism, friend of Jews, captain of America.
2.Chris Martin
“Clocks” is about Hannah Arendt.
3.Chris O’Dowd
Chris O’Dowd prefers the writings of Judith Shklar.
4. Chris Pine
Pine read Hannah Arendt’s Wikipedia page in advance of making the second “Wonder Woman” movie, just in case Gal Gadot wanted to talk about her.
5. Chris Hemsworth
Chris Hemsworth has never heard the word “Hannah” next to the word “Arendt.” However, if Hannah Arendt was alive, Hemsworth is the Chris she would most like to spend time with. That’s showbiz, baby.
6.Chris Messina
Chris Messina has not heard of Hannah Arendt.
7.Chris Pratt
Please be serious.
Jenny Singer is the deputy life/features editor for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO