Am I evil?

Question

My philosophy class was talking about Hitler and whether it would be wrong to kill him or not. Everybody kept saying that it would be wrong to kill him because he hadn't done anything wrong yet (October 1918, blind Hitler in a hospital). A few others said it would be murder or that the war and the Holocaust were inevitable.

I raised my hand and I said I wouldn't hesitate to kill Hitler. The systematic genocide of over 6 million people, a war that killed another 50 million, and an ideology of hate and bigotry that pollutes the world to this day. If removing that costs one man's life, particularly the one responsible for it, then that's a price worth paying. This stupid girl tried saying it was the same thing as Hitler to kill millions of people. I argued her back saying that one life isn't the equivalent to 60 million and that she was writing off all those people by being willing to let Hitler walk. She didn't have an answer for that. Hitler was human filth that deserved to die.

"Some people don't believe that they should take the life of anyone...and something tells me some people in your class aren't being very honest."

I agree with them, but sometimes you have to pick the lesser of two evils. To me Hitler's death is an acceptable price for undoing a genocide.

"
I would not kill Hitler and it has nothing to do with being no different than him. I would not kill him because it is not as simple as stopping the deaths attributed to him. Killing Hitler would probably end all of our lives. How many children were born after the war, the so called baby boom? There would be a ripple effect that could have turned the tides of the world giving Russia the upper hand possibly leading to nuclear Armageddon. So no, there are too many variables of which my mind cannot currently conceive that would be affected by Hitler being killed. "

This I find hard to buy because Stalin wanted to keep Russia isolated and actually had a pact with Hitler towards that end until Hitler broke it.

Answer 1

You are evil. But that's okay - pretty much everyone is. Those who focus on Hitler and place the blame for all of WW2 at his feet are entirely missing the point.

Let's try a thought experiment. If I told you to jump off a bridge, and you did it, would you be angry with me? What if I told a whole country to jump off a bridge? If everyone ignores me, what harm am I doing?

And this is the point. The problem was not the Hitler advocated eugenic ideas to the point of exterminating people. The problem was that people did it! If Germany had not gone along with the whole thing, Hitler would have just been some unemployed madman screaming on a corner somewhere (which is where his party originally found him).

People can't accept this because that means accepting that they are evil. So they blame the messenger. They pretend that Americans didn't lock citizens of Japanese descent into the same kind of concentration camps in WW2. They pretend that they didn't vehemently agree to throw celebrities in jail because they wouldn't turn on their friends during McCarthyism. And they pretend that they didn't vote for the politicians who wanted to close down all the 'liberal universities' after 9/11.

As long as people see things as HITLER's fault and not their own, they can continue to commit atrocities themselves. Once they accept responsibility, Hitler becomes a pitiable figure rather than a hateful one.

Even if one person were solely responsible for something in history, travelling back in time negates that. If YOU can go back in time to change things, then logically enough other people can too. This means that if you can time travel you can never really know that your version of history will actually happen - someone might have changed something else along the way. The only way to KNOW if someone will do something atrocious is to let them do it. And then it's too late. Killing historical people, if it were possible, would be a complete waste of time.

Answer 2

I would not kill Hitler and it has nothing to do with being no different than him. I would not kill him because it is not as simple as stopping the deaths attributed to him. Killing Hitler would probably end all of our lives. How many children were born after the war, the so called baby boom? There would be a ripple effect that could have turned the tides of the world giving Russia the upper hand possibly leading to nuclear Armageddon. So no, there are too many variables of which my mind cannot currently conceive that would be affected by Hitler being killed.

*In response to your response.* You would trust Stalin to honor that pact? You think only Hitler was capable of deceptipn? Did you know that Russia said it would not invade Poland? Instead they made a secret agreement with Germany to partition Poland. Seriously, you need to look a bit deeper here.

Answer 3

No one of sane mind would argue whether the World would be better or worse without Hitler.
So, you're not evil when you want to kill Hitler.
But where to draw the line? At 1000 caused deaths? At 100, 10, 1? Would you kill someone to prevent him to possibly to kill someone else?
This question troubles generations back and the best answer since rise of civilization is: A person should not decide on other person live. A state (community) can do that in order to protect their members.
So, it's ok for you to want to kill Hitler, but it should be done by the state (community), not by you.

Answer 4

You are not evil just misguided in who to blame. Hilter was only a means through how the hatred for the Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, etc transpired. We all know that Hitler did not kill them by himself - he just brought out the brewing hatred over the centuries. You would have had to kill not only Hitler but all those who supported him. If you want to kill anything kill the desire to hate that which we don't understand. If you can destroy that there would be no more Hitlers in this world.

Answer 5

KNOWING WHAT DO changes everything. The question iteself is not a fair one to begin with. You can't answer honestly if you didn't know what he would do. But if you know what he would do then it changes everything. If people say that they woudl allow him to live is hyprocritical. Most people would kill him if they had a chance.

The question should really be is their anything aside from killing him that we could do. By all means he should have been commited for having borderline personality disorder.
Love Dahlia

Answer 6

per chance God did not make evil to be evil. or per chance he made evil so we recognize the coolest. i'm getting perplexed a lot, noticeably about the data of religion. I do only not recognize what to trust, a minimum of, no longer yet. notwithstanding, I one way or the different won't be able to trust God is advise, or indignant. i do not favor to trust it, a minimum of. How could God burn one in all his creatures, noticeably if he's all-forgiving? I do only not imagine he would. anybody is punished on earth, i imagine. Even murderers ought to stay w/ themselves and their evil deed for some thing else of their lives. i do not recognize how their victims will be avenged, except per chance they don't favor revenge even as they are in Heaven. per chance we are all in a unique body of concepts, or some thing. per chance it truly is only a caution, to maintain people from being undesirable. i imagine we ought to always attempt to be practically as good as achieveable, even only for this international, to boot because the subsequent, and that i don't believe of there are preordained good and evil people. wish it is sensible!

Answer 7

I don't think you are evil. It is really a ridiculous question to ask in class since everyone knows what Hltler did.

Some people don't believe that they should take the life of anyone...and something tells me some people in your class aren't being very honest.

I don't know myself if I could kill someone that hasn't yet killed anyone...but I sure as hell could lock him up for life before he does.

Answer 8

At that point, 1918, Hitler had killed no one. Are you prescient or traveled back in time? Otherwise, you would be just another murderer.

Answer 9

Yes

Answer 10

You must read the Time Machine. Or at least see the latest version of it for the movies with Jeremy Irons.