Indeed, it is to science fiction, rather than to the more humane Utopias of the past, that we must look for the extremities of the totalitarian’s belief that, while nothing may be in itself meaningful, everything may be possible. Hannah Arendt’s extraordinarily penetrating book makes plain that totalitarianism, whether Nazi or Stalinist, cannot be understood so long as we continue to use the traditional categories of common sense: it cannot be explained by the mere desire for power, for national expansion, for class revenge—for any motives that are simply human, though evil. Totalitarians are “inhuman” in that they are motivated toward total domination of the globe, toward total destructiveness of human individuality everywhere. Their goals are based neither on specific, narrow interests nor even on the utopianism of earlier ideologies, religious or socialist, which sought to extend in the future the sway of certain already given values.

—David Riesman, (1951, April). Review of The Origins of Totalitarianism, by Hannah Arendt. Commentary.

Guardian:

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has said it made “an error” in cancelling the performance of an acclaimed pianist who dedicated a piece to slain journalists in Gaza.

Jayson Gillham was scheduled to perform Mozart and Brahms at the Melbourne Town Hall on Thursday with the MSO, but was removed from the event after the orchestra said he made “a series of introductory remarks” that were “beyond the remit of his contract” at a previous performance.

…

“Over the last 10 months, Israel has killed more than one hundred Palestinian journalists,” Gillham told the crowd on Sunday, according to his management.

“A number of these have been targeted assassinations of prominent journalists as they were travelling in marked press vehicles or wearing their press jackets. The killing of journalists is a war crime in international law, and it is done in an effort to prevent the documentation and broadcasting of war crimes to the world.

“In addition to the role of journalists who bear witness, the word witness in Arabic is shaheed, which also means martyr.”

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has become the deadliest conflict for journalists in recent history, with the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists recording at least 113 killings of Palestinian journalists and media workers in the war in Gaza.