The Danger of the Belief in One's Own Ideal

The early life of Adolph Hitler is both a chillingly mortal beginning as well as a construct for misunderstood youth to this day. Through his domineering father and wishful mother he honed a strong sense in his self, although unsure of who he really was. He lived in a time of great wealth in Germany and Austria, but for the most part was on the outside looking in. He placed the “German idyll” on a pedestal and must have constantly internalized why it was that he did not have it.

Clearly Hitler thought about things from a broad perspective, mentally taking on huge social and political issues and applied them to his own life. To me he seemed like a dreamer, someone who knew what he wanted to see in the world, yet he did not fit into any previous mold. He did not succeed under the rigid German schooling system, although he saw himself as a winner. It makes sense that he chose to pursue art as it is archetypical of the individual with a message. He could not graduate the German school system and excel in that way, so he took a route that he internalized could portray his message to the audience he ultimately sought.

I believe it was the rejection that Hitler faced that ultimately caused him to seek radical ideology. He was not the student he believed he was, he was not the artist he wanted to be, he lacked the friends he believed he should have had, and he did not have the fiscal means that a proper (ideal) German should have.

His mind then shifted towards the inhibitor of his success. In his mind it certainly was not his fault that he wasn’t on top, but certainly those who did not reflect his German ideal.

This factor makes me think to the recent Norway shooter. He felt that his Norwegian ideal and way of life was threatened by that of outsiders, in his case Muslims. Once he was convinced that his Norwegian way of life was the ideal, it became easy for him to justify a crusade against these “outside problems”. It was this religious-type fervor that both Anders Breivik and Adolph Hitler both fed off that allowed them to self-justify their inhumane beliefs.