Psychology and History: Why Hitler Attracts Attention Even Now

Interest in Hitler Today

If you were to visit Google Trends – you would find that this site reports its findings in categories. One of those categories is political leaders or politicians. At the top are John F. Kennedy and one or two rows down – is Adolf Hitler. 

If you use a keyword engine for research on some SEO project such as an article with keywords in it, and it was on history or even World War II, you would find Hitler in there and the number of hits will be high.

Trying to Understand This Phenomenon

Let’s face it, freaks always fascinate people and Hitler was a super freak. How can somebody who orders murders around-the-clock, week after week, year after year – not be a freak? How can this man who had this gift to move the masses with oratory, with the power of his voice, use it to hate, used to make people murder other people, to make nations attack other nations – and finally, start a world war that ended up costing millions upon millions of human lives – not be a freak?

Unlikely Figure of Interest

He started a life as a bum, with few social skills, health problems, a dead or nonexistent spirit, and a psychopathic personality. He went off to war in the year 1914, joined the List Infantry Regiment, and took joy in trench warfare.

He bravely volunteered to serve as a runner and took injuries more than once, he went blind in a British mustard gas attack, and counted all of this joy while countless comrades of his, cursed their luck.

After the war ended on November 11, 1918, while thousands of thousands of German veterans went home, he stated in the army to serve as a spy. And serve he did; he worked as a rat, denouncing leftist agitators who then were mowed down under machine gun fire.

Then, he visited the DAP in one of their political meetings, gave a rousing speech, was recruited to join it, took it over, and change its name to NSDAP or Nazi party. In a sense, Hitler was a political gangsterism guru. 

Food For Thought

Now, the big thing, the main question to be asked and to try to answer is this one: how many closet Hitlers are out there in this world – just waiting to get out of the closet to get to do their thing, which would involve acquiring the ability to influence a whole lot of other people do mass murder for them just so they can feel important?

 Yes, even today, weirdos like this Hitler guy are among us. And where do you find them, how do you know that there are countless people with a mentalities of a Hitler? Let me give you a clue.

In his book, The Republic, the ancient Greek philosopher Plato wrote that one of the main characteristics of a tyrant is a criminal character. The tyrant is a criminal by nature. Hitler was the kind of freakish tyrant that he got to be because he was a criminal.

Others Like Him

The same goes with Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini, Saddam Hussein, and this new leader of Isis, the terrorist organization claimed to be an Islamic state. They are all criminals and gangster leaders. Let me give you an example:

If you were to go to a gang ruled neighborhood in some inner-city, you would find yourself in the most undemocratic of communities. Whatever would happen, here would be done at the whim of the gang leader. Those permitted stay alive in those destined to be murdered would be selected at the whim of that gang leader.

Parallels In Criminal History

During the 1920s, during the Prohibition era, in Chicago, approximately 500 persons were murdered during the 10 year period which gangster wars raged between the organized crime organizations of North Side Gang of Bugs Moran and the South Side Gang under the leadership of Al Capone.

Both Al Capone and Bugs Moran were psychopathic criminals capable ordering murders without the least hesitation.

Meanwhile, in the early 1930s, there raged also an underworld war between two major Mafia families: the Masseria Crime Family versus a breakaway faction of it under the rising power and influence of Salvatore Maranzano.

A number of killings occurred in this Mafia civil war that nearly reached the casualty rate of the Chicago gangster war. All of these gangsters were freaks. How can sane people go about doing murder?

The Character Thing in the Sane Mind – Are We Hypocrites or Just Fascinated by Freaks Because We’re Different from Them?

The answer is sane people do not murder because their characters will not let them do murder. To do murder and order another to do it for you requires that you be a freak. Unfortunately, freaks fascinate sane people. Look at the sales figures or box office tallies resulting from movies such as The Godfather and Scarface.

Moreover, look at the ratings of how many people watched The World Wars on the History Channel.  I’ll bet you that one of the reasons that so many people chose to watch that series was the account of Hitler having been one of the major characters of this series. Had he not been one of them, the star villain, I doubt that the viewership would have been that high.

 In the end, I have to ask myself this question of myself and of other people like me: and I a hypocrite for being fascinated by histories of people like Hitler, Al Capone, and other monsters like these guys – or am I just a normal regular guy who is rocked by curiosity to see with some monster guy will do next.

I don’t know, I don’t think that I am a hypocrite simply because I find myself being totally consumed or enthralled by movies, stories, whatever – that deals with the antics in the monstrosities that these freaks do.

We’ll condemn them, was a horrible things about them, will voice regret that such people get to do these horrible things – but at the same time, with the movie, when some miniseries, when some book comes out detailing the horrible misdeeds of those who served these creatures, we’ll stand in line for hours or spend $30 or $40 on merchandise such as those books – and will spend the night reading them.