While reading this chapter originally I found it perplexing
that Klosterman did not want to talk about Hitler in his book about evil.
Hitler is the go to guy for evil. The one stop shop for the embodiment of evil
in today’s society. When Klosterman went over why he was hesitant to do so it
made perfect sense. While talking about Hitler since he’s such a well explored
historical villain. So much has been said about him and certain things can and
cannot be said about him. The mold of Hitler has been made and if people deviate
from it it becomes an issue. I found it
interesting how Klosterman was so restricted when he was essentially forced to
write on Hitler because it is expected.
Another thing that came to mind in this chapter was the
societal need for Hitler. We place Hitler upon a pedestal of villainy even when
you do the numbers he has not been the worst dictator. Hitler is used as the
top dog with respect to villainy in today’s western society. I feel like this
is the case because Hitler’s actions had a direct influence on the western
world. He is seen as the cause of WWII and the paramount of evil. As a society
I believe that we use Hitler as the extreme of the evil scale. It allows us to
see certain atrocities and be able to compare those tragic events to Hitler. Since
Hitler is seen as the ultimate evil, other evil actions are diluted when
compared to the Hitler we use as a scale.
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