What could go wrong?

Nothing compares to the Third Reich.

Nothing. 

Nobody in American politics is Hitler: not President Obama and not President-Elect Trump. We do some very bad things in America, but the Holocaust is a unique evil.

Because saying anything about the Third Reich makes people think you are making comparisons between someone and Hitler, the temptation is never to write about the Third Reich at all. Yet we must write about the Third Reich because good Christian people, people that are like we are, made horrible choices.

Thank God, we don’t face any choices so serious just now, but still we can learn from the mistakes of these regular souls. They faced peril, did their best, used bad reasoning and chose badly. The results were so obviously bad that nobody would wish to be like them.

Because we are simple folks, doing the best we can, as they were, we can learn from them. We mustn’t compare the seriousness of our choices to their choices: they were faced with a temptation to vote for Hitler to avoid Stalin. Americans are very blessed! Surely we can make mistakes that are serious without being that serious.

I may not be boarding Titanic, but I don’t want my own disregard for speed and safety to lead to a fender bender!

Read and re-read Richard Evans on The Coming of the Third Reich.  Good people made many mistakes, but there are three that we might make in our less serious (God helping us!) circumstances.

First, good people were apt to think that nobody could mean the crazy stuff and so look for the “real Hitler.” People would meet Herr Hitler and find him charming. He was “putting on an act” or paling around with the crazies to get votes. There was a better Hitler ready to be born and we (or friends we trust) have seen him!

This was a delusion and that delusion would kill millions.

Who hasn’t faced that temptation? Many a destructive narcissistic boss is also charming in private. How could he be a sex harasser or a racist when he is such a great pal? Those crude things he says? It’s just where he grew up! He is trying to relate to the guys in the plant! The public side, the bad stuff, isn’t real, because we know him or we have friends who know him. Over drinks, alone, he is a great guy!

This assumes that the private is the real and that the boss is acting in public and not in private. This might be true, but the opposite might be true as well. Many a man is more himself in public space and puts on a show for his friends. His friends would not tolerate his loutish behavior if he were not so thoughtful in private.

Second, the Bible says “bad company corrupts good morals,” but the Germans said: “Herr Hitler has to hang out with those people to get things done. We have to use Herr Hitler ourselves to get things done. He will get rid of them when he has power.”

This is so easy to do! We know that the plumber is a racist, but he is such a good plumber! We know Joe is using our business trip to cheat on this wife, but we are just doing business. There is an old saying: the man who would sup with the devil had better have a long spoon.

Of course, we cannot wait to do business only with saints! Nobody would do business with me if that were the rule! However, a man with a pattern of attracting and using bad people is probably bad. We all make bad choices, but if a man uses his bad choices for power, then he is almost surely bad.

A man who has been hiring bad people for years will not change.

Finally, clever people often think they can control bad guys.

“We will make Hitler chancellor, but fence him in with our people. We will use the checks and balances of the system to get what we need from him. It will be ok.”

It wasn’t. Within a few years, those who wanted to use Hitler were out and he was in. This almost always happens. Why?

You cannot use a man without being wicked yourself and generally, wicked people are better at being wicked! To use any human is bad and that badness undercuts any good we might hope to do. Users are wicked, but those who use other people openly and boldly will always be better at it!

Thank God we almost never face monumental choices. We are simple people and mostly find ourselves in less fraught times with less horrific choices. Still: don’t try using Dr Narcissistic’s gifts to build your ministry! Don’t think that the man who hangs with barbarians isn’t a barbarian and don’t try to use bad men to power good causes.

Nobody is Hitler. This is not Weimer Germany. The Third Reich is not coming to our place of employment, but we in our petty way. We can make bad decisions producing paltry versions of the mistakes men like us made.