From: Vincent Campbell (VCampbell@dmu.ac.uk)
Date: Wed 07 May 2003 - 10:46:36 GMT
<And if you had a gun to the head of Hitler in 1935
> and knew what the next ten years would bring if you didn't pull the
> trigger, how would you explain your principled nonaction to the families
> of all the Holocaust dead?>
>
Saying you had a gun to his head already presumes that the only way to
prevent the holocaust you know is coming (temporal paradox aside) is to
shoot him dead. Don't forget an assassination in effect started WWI, and a
presumed assassination triggered the Rwandan genocide. Assassination can
martyr people, and may have made things far worse. Pre-emption is the lazy
person's way out. How about debate, discussion, efforts at persuasion and
so on? How about going back a decade or so and treating post-WWI Germany
better, diffusing the appeal of hitler, asuming he might still emerge, to a
disenchanted German public? How about killing the guy who killed ferdinand,
which might have stopped WWI, then hitler wouldn't have spent all that time
in the trenches that clearly deeply traumatised him? It's all a game of
what if that can't be solved by a simple solution.
The Romans did kill Jesus didn't they, but it didn't stop christianity.
Important as he was, nazism wasn't ever just about hitler.
Finally, if you have to resort to their level to defeat your opponent- kill
them before they kill you- you've already lost.
On a slightly lighter not, any other list members note the problems that
Germany is having in holding a 'Great Germans' contest a la the BBC's Great
Britons? They've included Austrians as possible candidates, but of course
have had to ban people from voting for Hitler. I believe Goethe is a strong
contender.
Vincent
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