The Future
After considering what happened in Germany during the 1930s, do you think that a Hitler-type could rise again? If so, what conditions would make it possible? If not, what safeguards would prevent such an event?
posted by Crosby | 8:22 PM
9 Comments:
The scary thing is that we might not know. I mean, Hitler rose to power legitimately, and it wasn't like he exploded into action. Things happened slowly enough that people didn't take notice until too late. What if something like that is happening now? I think that only part of the problem was Hitler's evils in and of themselves. The other half of it was the people who saw something wrong but chose to ignore it. Like Crosby said, if you study the Kristallnacht, it does not make much sense--why were the Jews blamed for destroying their own businesses and synagogues? It is illogical. And yet no one stood up to question the Nazis' authority. So yes, Jordan, perhaps a Hitler figure could rise again under the right conditions, but like adavidf said, most of the economic and military powers are relatively stable; the right conditions may not be present now. Yet who can say when the right conditions might come again? And can we really trust that humanity learned its lesson after World War II?
Yes a regime like Hitler can rise, but obviously not exactly the way Hitler rose to power. It is believable that anyone in the world can rise and conquer "the world." Dictators like Kim Jung Il have the potential to spread is worldwide terror with support of other countries.
I'm sure that the world did not expect Germany to become yet another world threat. All we can do is to hope and intervene into situations that are out of control. Other countries are very resistant if they are inspected and possibly blamed of such actions. Like Jordan said, nuclear weapons can be a way to hold power. We must waTch from all perspectives to try to prevent such situation.
Suddam almost and attempted to take little land that seemed measley to us Americans. Luckly we took the matter seriously and forcefully abdicated Suddam. They had the material and technology to produce "weapons of mass production" as George BUsh said.
We have to be on top of our heels to take every matter seriously. Again, a Hitler can rise without say in the world, then exploit his power in a rush.
I think that you all are now ready for the PPT that I had ready to go for today and said that we would look at later . . .
I agree with Jordan that a Hitler figure could rise again because if terrorists get ahold of nuclear weapons, they could really use them to destroy things. For nat>m'nm's question, the US could go into the countries and try to help them, but that might cause another, bigger problem than there was before
I like the discussion that has gone on so far, but I think we are also overlooking the fact that we do not know what goes on in a politician's head. Someone could live their whole life givng every indication that they were happy, normal, nonsadistic people, but then go strap a bomb onto their back and jump out in front of a train. YOU NEVER KNOW what anyone on this earth has in their head, and that is part of the reason Hitler rose to power in the first place. If somebody with bad thoughts on the brain were able to fool the people he knows long enough, has a good mind for camoulflage and sabotage, and can get the sort of popularity and funds the government provides, they could easily become the ruler Hitler was. As for people being worried about whatever inhumane conduct was going on, I'm sure a ruler like that could think of plenty of ways to hide from the eyes of the public and keep their taxes rolling faithfully in. Think hollowed out volcanoes. If I can think of something like that, think what someone like Hitler could have done with today's technology. If a creepy mastermind like Hitler managed to secure a position, how much would we really be able to fight back with technology or anything without that kind of effeciency behind it?
Ok, let's say some Hitler out there right now is getting power. So what do we do about it? What can we do about it before things get worse?
Michelle, if there is a Hitler type rising to power right now and we don't know about it at this time, there is really nothing we can do until the person becomes known around the world, and by that time, it might be too late.
It might seem that when something bad happens around somebody the natural reaction would be to jump up and down screaming to stop the violence, but kong il has been in power for a very long time, we have enough evidence that he is a hitler type, it is obvious he is brainwashing the people under him, shown by the various packets Crosby gave us, and still no deciesive action is being taken. This situation of inactivity seems to me uncomfortably similar to that of WWII, and it doesn't help that we just studied all the depressing and disturbing aftereffects of that stagnancy. What does it take to get America sufficiently perturbed? A nuclear bomb to the head? We are alive right now, and we have voices right now, so why can't we use them to defend those that have none or will not have one for much longer?
It is possible for a Hitler-type person to rise again, but there will have to be certain circumstances for it to happen. The most likely way for it to happen would for there to be some sort of major economic downfall like the Great Depression. Hitler rose to power during our Great Depression and what people don’t always realize is that while our great depression was bad, Germany’s was worse due to the fact that they lost World War 1 and had many restrictions thrown upon them from the winning side. Hitler saw this as an opportunity and started to tell people how it was all the Jews fault and when he got enough support, he eventually ran to power. We had someone who could have been like this in America, but I couldn’t find out his name, and he was from the south during the 1920’s and had this huge private army and things like that. He was very tyrannical, but many saw him as a hero. The only safe guard to this that I can see was taken by America, which was to take him out with a sniper.
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