"Because they are initium, newcomers and beginners by virtue of birth, men take initiative, are prompted into action."
Is a truly new beginning about erasing the past completely, or about turning in a new direction while still carrying it?
The philosopher who fled the Nazis and found hope in 'birth'
As a Jew, Hannah Arendt fled Nazi Germany and lived stateless across several countries. Having witnessed firsthand how totalitarianism tries to extinguish human spontaneity and novelty, she found, paradoxically, grounds for hope in the fact of human 'natality.'
In 'The Human Condition,' she wrote that every person, by being born, carries the capacity to bring something new into the world. Her conclusion: no matter how oppressive a regime, it can never fully eliminate the possibility that the next generation will be born and act unpredictably.