Charlie Kirk, The Banality of Evil, and The Importance of Leadership
September 27, 2025
Charlie Kirk, The Banality of Evil, and the Human Condition
I haven’t addressed the murder of Charlie Kirk until now. I didn’t follow him directly; I never watched a single full lecture or debate. Instead, social media algorithms cleverly delivered sound bites and clips that aligned with their assumptions about my own thoughts. Even still, like many of you, his death triggered a variety of thoughts and carefully navigated discussions. It prompted me to watch more of his debates than I had in the past. I felt like I needed to know why someone would do that to him. These events always seem to make me take the time to think a little more—not so much on politics, but on the human condition.
After the shock, I reflected on our country's state and humanity as a whole. History reveals an interesting, albeit it troubling, paradox: while people are capable of incredibly good things —even more than we realize—they also have the potential for far greater evil than we care to acknowledge. Even more unsettling, those who commit such acts are not always the monsters we conjure in our minds for comfort or convenience. Instead, they are often disturbingly ordinary—a reality we struggle to accept.
Hannah Arendt called this the “banality of evil.” She was struck by how ordinary Adolf Eichmann seemed. He wasn’t a monster in appearance, but a bureaucrat following orders and systems. Christopher Browning documented the same thing in Ordinary Men—a group of middle-aged German policemen who became mass killers because they didn’t say “no.” And the crazier thing? When given the chance to take a different assignment, most did not. These were shop owners, trades people; they were normal citizens.
The past tends to remind us that ordinary people can go to the extreme when extreme thoughts become common…or, ordinary. Even the ordinary can slip into the most extreme condition when the conditions are right. In the recent past, we experienced friends, church members, neighbors, and even family members after experiencing fear and system pressure finding themselves ok with withholding health care if and when certain conditions weren’t met.
I feel like we like to tell ourselves that evil is carried out exclusively by monsters. It makes it far easier to demonize a killer when they fit the mold of a stereotypical killer. Our minds want to believe that it only takes a rare kind of broken human to commit atrocities. But history—and even recent history—suggests otherwise. Ordinary people, placed in corrupt systems and under pressure, are capable of horrible acts. Ordinary people can dehumanize someone on the left or right to the point of celebration of their death. So it isn’t as shocking to me now when an “ordinary” kid, when exposed to extreme rhetoric, constantly fed reinforcing ideas by social media, feels a sense of pressure, and therefore, decides to take an extreme action.
Evil doesn’t always announce itself as evil. It asks for just one small compromise at a time, and before they know it, people find themselves at the summit of the Everest of the extreme.
For leaders, this is more than a philosophical thought experiment. It’s a warning and a responsibility.
· Cultures can drift toward harm through small compromises.
· Teams can normalize corrosive behaviors until no one notices anymore.
· People can abdicate moral judgment if all they’re asked to do is “follow the system.”
But the same pliability that makes us capable of evil also makes us capable of extraordinary good. Leaders who “leave no doubt” recognize that their role isn’t just to drive results—it’s to guard the culture, to resist conformity when conformity corrodes, and to call people to their higher selves even when fear and pressure are heavy.
The murder of Charlie Kirk was a shocking and impactful event. And as a leader, I take it as a reminder: I need to practice awareness, empathy, and courage daily—not just for me, but for the people who trust me to do the right thing. Never underestimate ordinary – good or bad – when put in the right conditions.