The “Good” Nazi

I’ve largely stayed out of political posts for the last while, not because I haven’t had thoughts about what’s happening in the world (I’ve had plenty), but more because (as I’ve noted before), it’s become more of a trench warfare scenario than anything else. People have very firmly held beliefs, and they’ve shown little interest in entertaining anything that goes against those beliefs. However, I’ve had something bumping around in my head for the last while, and I wanted to get it down on (virtual) paper, so here we are.

I think Hollywood and media in general have done us all a disservice by portraying Nazism with a very broad, very evil brush. No, I’m not saying I think what the Nazis did was acceptable or admirable in any way. Rather, it seems to me that Nazis are often portrayed as goose stepping, SS uniform wearing sadists who want nothing more than to bring about the destruction of everyone and everything. In many ways, Nazis have become almost like a modern day folklore character. They’ve been “othered” to the point that they seem like they’re straight out of a horror movie instead of real life.

But that’s not how it was. The people who voted for the Nazi party (or chose to allow them to stay in power) weren’t all voting for a holocaust. Hitler came to power through a deal with conservatives who thought to use his popularity to further their own ends while keeping him under control. There were plenty of “good people” who went along with all of it for any number of other reasons: ignorance, convenience, delusion, circumstance, etc. But since that’s seldom portrayed in pop culture and the common discussions around history, it becomes that much easier to dismiss the evils of the Nazis as something abnormal and uncommon. As a rarity that surely won’t be repeated.

But of course, there have been genocides throughout history. There have been atrocities in almost every civilization, and the sooner we can (hopefully) learn to recognize the fact that evil is no respecter of political parties and should be rooted out regardless of where we find it, the sooner we might have a chance of actually doing some good.

In my opinion, the way to do this isn’t to demonize people who have done awful things. Not that they should be excused or minimized, but rather, condemning atrocities falls short if we just try to convince ourselves that only evil people commit them. We need to realize how close we all can be to making the same mistakes ourselves. In the Batman graphic novel, The Killing Joke, the Joker has a famous monologue where he talks about how everyone is one bad day away from turning into a villain. He argues with Batman that the two of them are far more similar than Batman would ever like to admit.

While the Joker might be right, what scares me far more than the “one bad day” argument is the thought that a series of days that seem normal can end up doing far more harm in the long run. I’d like to think that most people on most days wouldn’t be inclined to commit atrocities. But when those atrocities sneak up on us under the guise of normalcy, it’s much harder to come to our senses (and to get other people to come to theirs.)

In Mosiah 3:19, we read, “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.”

In other words, we’re all naturally inclined to do things that go against God’s will. It’s inherent in our nature, and we have to work hard to keep from falling into that rut. Submissive? Meek? Humble? Patient? Full of love? You don’t see these qualities evidenced too often in the political arena.

I look around the country right now, and I see so much that I wish we could change. If we could identify behaviors that have no place in a civil society and then do our best to root them out, regardless of where we find them, perhaps we’d make some progress. What sort of behaviors? Viewing people as objects, obstacles, or problems, not as humans. Rationalizing something because our “side” is doing it, or because the other “side” did it first. Accepting cruelty because it is somehow “necessary.” Overlooking evil because it’s a means to an end or helps push forward the “greater good.” Becoming accustomed to something that earlier would have horrified us.

We’re always inclined to think of ourselves and those we ally ourselves with as “good people.” But we need to continually ask ourselves what we’re willing to tolerate or excuse if we want to continue to think of ourselves that way.