Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Year 2105 and Hitler

Year 2105 –

Hitler - a great orator and fierce nationalist. He is credited with single handedly brining Germany out of their misery in post WW-II scenario. His militaristic foresight and diplomatic acumen can be compared with very few people of 20th century. Though his racial supremacist policies were partly responsible for WW-II, nevertheless his devotion towards his own people and ‘fatherland’ was widely seen as model for patriotism in contemporary era. He is accused of orchestrating holocaust, where almost 60 millions Jewish people allegedly were murdered. But there is no substantial evidence that he was direct in charge of such genocide. His associates like Goebbles, Goring etc may be responsible for Holocaust.

Don’t be alarmed, this eulogy was not printed anywhere. I wrote it just to understand how I felt when I read about Genghis Khan, listed as one of the most prominent person of last millennium in Time magazine. Not only Genghis Khan, I was astonished to see Muhammad Ghuri as a ‘king who brought numerous artisans, nobles etc’ along with him in India. Bought, give me a break! He was a fucking maniac, a religious zealot who killed millions just because they were not of his religion. Interestingly Hitler failed to get mentioned as one of the prominent person who shaped the world in last millennium. The explanation given by Nancy Gibbs, one of the Time magazines writers is as follows.

if all Hitler had done was kill people in vast numbers more efficiently than anyone else ever did, the debate over his lasting importance might end there. But Hitler's impact went beyond his willingness to kill without mercy. He did something civilization had not seen before. Genghis Khan operated in the context of the nomadic steppe, where pillaging villages was the norm. Hitler came out of the most civilized society on Earth, the land of Beethoven and Goethe and Schiller. He set out to kill people not for what they did but for who they were. Even Mao and Stalin were killing their "class enemies." Hitler killed a million Jewish babies just for existing.

Now, there is a differentiation among the killers on the basis of, well, what fits the current political scenario. This is ridiculous. Genghis Khan, Hitler, Muhammad Ghuri or all of their kinds were genociders, killers, and murderers. They killed people simply because ‘not for what they did but for what they were’.

All the people that came to North America as ‘pilgrimage’ or went to south America or Australia were genociders because they effectively obliterated Red Indians, Aboriginals of Australia and native dwellers of South and Central America. But, shhh! We can’t write about that, we can’t say that loudly. People who did that were whites, peaceful Christians and they were on their mission to educate the world. Ultimately, they succeeded in their efforts and price was too low even to mention. Couple of hundred million people lost their lives. But that’s ok! That is why we have Thomas Jefferson, George Washington as luminaries who lit the flame of freedom as democracy. (It is a different issue that they didn’t know that Red Indians were killed by their countryman ‘not for what they did but for what they were’. )

If Genghis Khan became a worlds prominent figure within 800 of his genocidal acts (almost 750 years of that 800 years wasn’t a media age per se!) then there is no stopping from someone writing eulogy for Hitler within next 100 years. And, as long as there is differentiation among the people who killed people insanely just because what they stood for, there will another genocider in making.

Don’t worry Mr. Pol Pot, Mr. Mao, Mr. Stalin you guys are next in line for eulogy.

2 comments:

Nivedita said...

this was a good one..its all a case of double standards, yaar...I know this guy who is a big 'fan' of Hitler's...says Hitler is to be admired..how ridiculous!

JB said...

remember my dearest blogger... history is written by the winners... Genghis Khan was the winner...Hitler wasn't...