Arendt believed that the right to citizenship, the right of a plurality of people "to act together concerning things that are of equal concern to each," is not only denied by totalitarianism, as it is by every despotism, but stands opposed to the principle that guides the acts of destruction that characterize ...

Hannah Arendt is best known for concepts such as the ``banality of evil'' as an explanation of the Holocaust but also for her search for the human condition and the roots of totalitarianism. When she developed her theories, fascism took over Germany and the Soviet Union became a totalitarian state under Stalin.

Some scholars have criticized Arendt for portraying the actions of some German dissenters in a better light than Jews who resisted. But, like it or not, Arendt's strategy is consistent with her description of the reversal that critical thinking effects.

This is the precept by which I have lived: Prepare for the worst; expect the best; and take what comes.