Politics & Power Quote by Hannah Arendt

Arendt is doing something deceptively bold here: she refuses to let “politics” be reduced to parties, parliaments, or policy fights. Politics, in her framing, ignites the moment speech becomes consequential - when words don’t just express preferences but create a shared world that others must answer to. That’s why “relevance” is the loaded term. It’s not about the right to make noise; it’s about whether speech counts as an event in public life, capable of initiating action, binding people to meanings, and exposing power.

The subtext is a warning to societies that treat speech as either a private lifestyle choice or a technical problem to be managed. If authorities, platforms, or social norms can decide which speech is “relevant,” then they’re not merely moderating discourse; they’re governing the conditions of citizenship. Arendt, writing in the shadow of totalitarianism, knew that domination doesn’t always start with overt censorship. It starts with the quieter move of making speech seem futile, interchangeable, or socially radioactive - a shift from public argument to enforced loneliness.

The line “by definition” is her provocation: you don’t get to opt out. Even the claim that something is “not political” becomes political when it polices whose voices register. Arendt’s intent is to defend the public sphere as a human achievement, not a natural fact. Speech makes us political because it makes us visible to one another - and therefore accountable, vulnerable, and capable of collective freedom.