Well this debate started in my english class early this week. Our class book for this term is "The Boy in Striped Pajamas" by John Boyne which is set during the holocaust so we did group projects with everyone doing a different topic and the topic of evil arose. Our teacher believes that Hitler was one of the most evil humans ever to have walked the earth but me and my friend didn't agree we believe that he was more of a misguided evil. Not to mention he was actually medical insane. He thought we were saying that Hitlers actions weren't really that evil or he had a reasonable excuse. What we were actually saying was that he was not as evil as human beings get. That he had people working for him that were potentially twice as evil. I'm just interested in what other peoples perception of evil and evil people is. Even views on Hitler's evilness, so to say. Your fellow literary lover Ivy Mane
i agree with u-hitler wasnt as evil as ppl may say, though we would automatically classify him as such. he was insane, quite the madman, and his dillusional views led him to kill millions to supposedly 'purefy' the world of jews, which is quite stupid, for he himself is half jew. he was also a genius, though one may never actually think taht of him based on wut he did. now, i am not saying that he was good and rite in wut he had done, but he isnt pure evil, just insane and thus misguided. they supposedly have a scale now for which ppl who are classified as 'evil' are scaled upon, though whether or not it is true, i have no idea. no one person in the world is 'pure' evil or 'pure' good, we all have a little of each within us..it is which one we chose to follow taht determines if we can b considered good or not. not one person in this world can ever deny not doing something wrong, likewise not one person who is evil can deny never having done something good. it is all in perspective. in most of the world, including myself, hitler was evil, though i wouldnt say pure evil. in his eyes, and at the time the eyes of his ppl, he was not. we are all considered evil in general by other ppl, in war, neither side is good nor evil, yet each is quick to state that they are fighting for wut is good and rite while the saying the other is evil and must be annihilated. many things have become 'evil' becasue of religious views, others upon morals and politics, though when can we point out the wrongs of others when we ourselves commit some of these wrongs ourselves, and there are plenty of us who have at the least thought of doing some of these wrongs, though not having committed them, but we are still guilty, not as much, but we are still. the serial killers and such are the closest ppl to evil, especially the ones who are completely and utterly sane. who we are is based on our environment, so we cannot fully blame one for his beliefs in wut we would think as evil, for he, or she, has been taught taht way. this world discriminates everyone, it is sexist, still racist, and everyone seems to put themselves on a higher pettistool than the next one but when it comes down to it, we are all equal, we are all human, we are not perfect, and we all have a little evil inside with our good. it is wut we choose to follow that matters most
i agree with the whole Hitlers thingy. i mean, my mate when we were doing WW2 said that he would meet Hitler and shoot him. and i said i would buy him a cuppa tea and have a chat. i wasn't trying to be funny or anything, but i would like to know why the guy did the things he did. i mean, he obviosly thought that what he was doing was the right thing to do, and yes, he probably had some sort of mental illness that made him think so. but i would like to have had a chat with him about the things he did, as i do not think he is evil. he did evil things, unforgivable things, but that does not make the person evil i think. Heather
Well no one thinks that they themselves are evil. Hitler must have thought that what he was doing was the right thing to do, under the circumstances, and justified by something. People don't just wake up one morning and think "Oh, let's commit genocide". There is always a reason, even if that reason is only in the mind of the person who has done the "evil" act. So I agree with you heather. I'd chat to him before putting the bullet in his head. I don't know about the cup of tea though, probably a glass of cold water instead. I don't like tea, and it's too hot today anyway.
Hitler was a very disturbed man. But to focus on him alone is a mistake. You also have to consider the political climate that welcomed a man like him into power, that surrounded him with like-minded butchers, and that supported his campaign of conquest, destruction and genocide. You have to look at a Germany broken down by defeat in WWI, and punished by the word for that war. That climate left them resentful and desperate, and that paved the way for Hitler's rise to power. If Hitler had not stepped up, someone else would have. It's something to think about to all those who favor abandoning Iraq to the warring internal factions. I don't believe in evil, per se. It is too simplistic a way of looking at behavior.
Exactly what I was trying to say, Cog, only much better put. Labeling something evil is a way to avoid having to look at the true reasons behind it. What Hitler did was very much a reaction to external stimuli, not something that simply came into being in his own head because he was "evil".
the 'good people' of germany who did nothing to stop the rise of hitler and his evil cohorts are perhaps even more evil, since they acted [or didn't, actually] out of pure self-interest and not with a 'noble cause' as their leaders saw themselves doing... the 'volk' wanted the jews who enjoyed the best homes and most successful businesses gone not from any religious or political affront they were committing, but purely from their own envy... the 'good germans' loved seeing those who'd worked hard for all they had but nevertheless had more than they did pulled down, reduced to their own level and then far lower... the 'volk' rejoiced when their jewish neighbors' homes were looted of the luxuries they'd earned and they were shoved into cattle cars with only the clothes on their backs... to me, that is 'pure evil'! i could go on and draw a parallel with what's happening in iraq and so many other parts of the world right now, but won't... i'll leave it to your imagination [and honesty], to see if anyone can/will admit who the 'volk' of today might be...
I see an evil person that has no conciance (I know I didn't spell that right!) and no sense of remorse for their actions. Just my thoughts anyways. Hiter was very disturbed and I would like to of met him and asked him why? But if the chance came if I could go back in time and make sure he didn't raise to power as he did, then yeah, I'd make sure he didn't get to the stage of killing millions of people. But then again, the people around him may not of tried to stop him. The greed for power, to do anything to gain it like the deaths of millions is also evil.
Why? There's every chance that if you did that, someone worse would have come along. And besides, all the good that has happened since World War Two might never have happened. I can't condone what happened, but I think screwing with the timeline like that would be irresponsible. What happened has happened, and as awful as it was, good has come of it. It would be impossible to stop every bad thing in history, so we just have to recover from those things as best we can, in the knowledge that good comes from everything, in some way.
Hmm. Good point. There will always be something worse out there. As the saying goes, better the devil you know.... But I'm sure those that survived might have a small urge to end the guy's regieme if they could.
