Friday, September 30, 2016

Patterns of Behavior

You may have heard that there’s a new biography out on Adolf Hitler by historian Volker Ullrich.  Volume 1 — “Adolf Hitler Ascent 1889-1939” is reviewed by Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times.

How did Adolf Hitler — described by one eminent magazine editor in 1930 as a “half-insane rascal,” a “pathetic dunderhead,” a “nowhere fool,” a “big mouth” — rise to power in the land of Goethe and Beethoven? What persuaded millions of ordinary Germans to embrace him and his doctrine of hatred? How did this “most unlikely pretender to high state office” achieve absolute power in a once democratic country and set it on a course of monstrous horror?

A host of earlier biographers (most notably Alan Bullock, Joachim Fest and Ian Kershaw) have advanced theories about Hitler’s rise, and the dynamic between the man and his times. Some have focused on the social and political conditions in post-World War I Germany, which Hitler expertly exploited — bitterness over the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles and a yearning for a return to German greatness; unemployment and economic distress amid the worldwide Depression of the early 1930s; and longstanding ethnic prejudices and fears of “foreignization.”

Other writers — including the dictator’s latest biographer, the historian Volker Ullrich — have focused on Hitler as a politician who rose to power through demagoguery, showmanship and nativist appeals to the masses. In “Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939,” Mr. Ullrich sets out to strip away the mythology that Hitler created around himself in “Mein Kampf,” and he also tries to look at this “mysterious, calamitous figure” not as a monster or madman, but as a human being with “undeniable talents and obviously deep-seated psychological complexes.”

“In a sense,” he says in an introduction, “Hitler will be ‘normalized’ — although this will not make him seem more ‘normal.’ If anything, he will emerge as even more horrific.”

[…]

Mr. Ullrich, like other biographers, provides vivid insight into some factors that helped turn a “Munich rabble-rouser” — regarded by many as a self-obsessed “clown” with a strangely “scattershot, impulsive style” — into “the lord and master of the German Reich.”

• Hitler was often described as an egomaniac who “only loved himself” — a narcissist with a taste for self-dramatization and what Mr. Ullrich calls a “characteristic fondness for superlatives.” His manic speeches and penchant for taking all-or-nothing risks raised questions about his capacity for self-control, even his sanity. But Mr. Ullrich underscores Hitler’s shrewdness as a politician — with a “keen eye for the strengths and weaknesses of other people” and an ability to “instantaneously analyze and exploit situations.”

• Hitler was known, among colleagues, for a “bottomless mendacity” that would later be magnified by a slick propaganda machine that used the latest technology (radio, gramophone records, film) to spread his message. A former finance minister wrote that Hitler “was so thoroughly untruthful that he could no longer recognize the difference between lies and truth” and editors of one edition of “Mein Kampf” described it as a “swamp of lies, distortions, innuendoes, half-truths and real facts.”

• Hitler was an effective orator and actor, Mr. Ullrich reminds readers, adept at assuming various masks and feeding off the energy of his audiences. Although he concealed his anti-Semitism beneath a “mask of moderation” when trying to win the support of the socially liberal middle classes, he specialized in big, theatrical rallies staged with spectacular elements borrowed from the circus. Here, “Hitler adapted the content of his speeches to suit the tastes of his lower-middle-class, nationalist-conservative, ethnic-chauvinist and anti-Semitic listeners,” Mr. Ullrich writes. He peppered his speeches with coarse phrases and put-downs of hecklers. Even as he fomented chaos by playing to crowds’ fears and resentments, he offered himself as the visionary leader who could restore law and order.

Sound familiar?

It is always dangerous to compare contemporary politicians to Hitler as the ultimate argument reduced to the absurd, and a lot of people — myself included — think that using the Third Reich as a point of comparison for someone trolling on the internet trivializes what happened in Europe in the 1930’s and the Holocaust.  That said, we can’t just let the obvious parallels that have been seen in the rise of dictatorships to situations in our own country and blithely say “Well, it can’t happen here” and ignore the patterns of behavior that set the stage for the rise of a demagogue and manipulator.

6 barks and woofs on “Patterns of Behavior

  1. More upsetting to me than the behavior of either Hitler or Trump is the response from the “masses” who fall into line behind the leader. I find it too hard to rationalize by noting, as Chris Matthews does, these people are deeply patriotic and want a better American that gives them jobs close to home and a life where their kids can thrive. i believe that’s hogwash. I think the Trumpers are thinking of themselves and not of their country. I also think a good majority of them are misogynistic and can’t picture a female president. Along with that is the racial bias that still exists even after eight years of a black President.
    Deplorable indeed.

    • I think a lot of voters boil it down to “What’s in it for me?” Promises of lower taxes, a better life and nothing to upset them is a tempting bait.

  2. Familiar indeed!! Substitute trump for hitler & if you are nodding your head….
    Ahh, the “masses”.
    Gonna need a Bigger Basket.

  3. “First and foremost, Hitler saw the State as the ideal form of social organization; managed by people dedicated to making it finer and stronger……….. This fundamental error he shares with all who favor the continuing existence of government. Thus, at root, every politician is a Nazi.” From: http://strike-the-root.com/monster-in-making

  4. But, I would hope, I do, believe a politician gains the difference at some point. I would hope a POTUS would NOT round up certain peoples in trains & send them to “the showers”. Hitler was mental, a demagogue, racist… hey, wait a minute..
    But you are Right about the comparison, Ed.

  5. Recently I watched a History Channel documentary – Caligula: 1400 Days Of Terror. Nearly every word that was used to describe Caligula’s personality and behavior could easily apply to Drumpf. Find it somewhere online, watch it, and be afraid. Be very afraid.

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