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gentlewave:

For human beings, thinking of past matters means moving in the dimension of depth, striking roots and thus stabilizing themselves, so as not to be swept away by whatever may occur — the Zeitgeist or History or simple temptation. The greatest evil is not radical, it has no roots, and because it has no roots it has no limitations, it can go to unthinkable extremes and sweep over the whole world. …. It [evil] is ‘thought-defying’, as I said, because thought tries to reach some depth, to go to roots [radix], and the moment it concerns itself with evil, it is frustrated because there is nothing. That is its ‘banality’. Only the good has depth and can be radical.

(Hannah Arendt, Responsibility and Judgement); (Hannah Arendt, Letter to Gershom Scholem).