Outsiders, Liars, Scamsters: Hannah Arendt on “Schwindel” and Free Speech

ABSTRACT Drawing on Hannah Arendt, this article sketches out the field in which the potential effectivity of a claim to free speech—its power—may play out. The article combines Arendt’s thoughts on free speech and its (in)effectivity with a rather odd-sounding word that she reinserted into the German translations of her texts from the original English: “Schwindel.” This word translates at once to “fibbing” and “lying,” “fraud” and “scam,” as well as to “dizziness” and “vertigo.” Attention to the complex range of connotations of the German word in its English translations unexpectedly discloses how debates around free speech connect with three aspects of contemporary political life: the social opportunism of a lifestyle centered around “hustling,” the unavailability of truth in politics, and a dysfunctional social economy.