Did you know that Adolf Hitler was named Man of the Year in a 1938 Time Magazine? Even today this man pops up more than anyone else in discussions about politics, morality or even a casual debate with a friend. Apparently, someone eventually starts “acting like Hitler”.
People believe that Adolf was one of the most vicious leaders that have ever lived and that humanity was saved by putting him down. We know deep down that the simplistic plot of Good triumphing over Evil doesn’t seem to be satisfactory. Nonetheless, Hollywood seems to be selling to us more crap than ever by investing on this narrative and we adopt it with everything that goes on around us—from our political history to our personal relationships
Hitler did exactly what most people would do in his position. Whether we take Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar, Amenhotep of Egypt, Alexander the Great, Roosevelt or Otto the Great, they all acted much the same. Some of them were caught, some others covered their deeds well enough because they emerged glorious.
What disturbs most of us about Hitler’s actions was not so much his attrocious war tactics but rather the treatment of the prisoners—particularly the Jewish ones. At the same time we forget the prison camps in the U.S where the Japanese were treated like trash. Many people are terrorized by human experimentation and eugenics in Nazi Germany, neglecting that the US inspired the Nazis to start their monstrous endeavours.
If Hitler had won the war, the world wouldn’t be so different from today. Probably more people would speak German but Europe would still look much the same—puppet states all serving Germany under a scheme called “Something Something Union”.
The third Reich one way or another was successful. After the end of WW2 a massive inflation took place in the US and the only way to salvage the country (and the Allies as a whole) was to lend money in form of gold bonds (that are mysteriously still missing) to the defeated. In less than half a century, Germany, who owned trillions for World War reparations, got to lead the way again in Europe. It got bailed out and nobody was asking how or why.
Much like back then, the same politico-economic fiasco plays out today. Countries function as shell companies serving corporatist empires. Politicians are puppets that keep the masses busy. The players change but the game remains the same. Hitler, Shmitler, things one way or another would still need to be bailed out, no matter who won the war in order to keep the economic scheme going. Human stupidity doesn't need Hitler to flourish.
Most people under a given government fail to understand that the entire world, every single country, is governed more or less by a variation of democratic socialism much like in Nazi Germany.
Although there are plenty of distinctions in political textbooks and one could have hours of pointless conversations wih arm-chair political philosophers, the architecture of a country remains much the same; political governance, drawn in an arbitrary geographically drawn area, divided into some groups of people who use their numbers in order to elect representatives that will impose their will to the rest.
We like to believe that good guys won WW2 because we are presented only to one side of the story and it make us feel good about ourselves. History is written by the winners. Most of the things we are taught in school are national propaganda to advance a country’s goals. Most of the things we get to know are also a narrative that someone else wants us to believe.
Information can be very easily manipulated. The human mind can be easily palpated, especially at a young age and then it is very hard to turn it back. Companies know this. Countries know this as will. It is a solid marketing strategy. Once you get a young client, you own them and their mind for life. You can then teach them about history however you want.
If Hitler had won, rebels around the world would still cause problems to his empire much like we have small uprisings today in Middle East clashing with the US. If Hitler had won, much like Bush, he would still raise the Bible and claim that war is “God’s Will”. Eugenics would still advance like they do today and we still be presented with the Americans being the enemies—and we would fall for it much like we buy the American propaganda.
Sometimes we seem to forget that human nature is not all that different when it comes to ideas of war and imperialism. As a species we are crafted to group together into different fractions and through our leaders we are tempted to conquer the opposing side. It doesn’t make much of a difference who will emerge after a violent clash. Most of us forget quite easily given the winners supply the citizens with enough comforts.
History is never black and white. History is a gray, out of focus picture that you can barely make what is going on. There is no way to “focus” the image properly but we can tell that a leader was chosen from a group of people to violently lead them against another group. Only that much is clear and only that much should really be instilled in our brains.
Is times like these that critical thinking becomes vital. We might want to change the world to our liking, make it “better” assuring ourselves that this time things would be different. Since WW2, we haven't changed much the way we structure our societies. We rather became more efficient ignoring the truth—letting others feed us information behind a screen. We customised our political narrative. Can we really ever escape from our pitfalls?
