Apr 7, 2007
Hitler and other underdogs
A strange encounter at the swimming pool the other day has left me stunned.
Vien, we'll call him, is a 30 something Vietnamese American. His mother was Vietnamese, his father a white American soldier. From his looks you might think he's a more handsome Barack Obama and with a similarly multi-ethnic background similarly blessed with a very modern perspective.
I have talked with Vien at other times and knew he is actually tortured by his past. At a young age he was taken in by foster parents who regularly beat him. He escaped to America where he has no family.
By dint of hard work he has managed to build a middle class life for himself. He even owns a house in the suburbs. But the scars of the past left heavy welts on his emotional well-being.
This became evident the other day when he began talking about his upcoming vacation to Corsica. Why had he decided to go to Corsica, I wondered. It's not the usual tourist's destination.
Vien said that he had always been fascinated by Napoleon. Then, in a kind of dictator synapse, he somehow segged from Napoleon to Hitler. Then came the part that stunned me.
Speaking in a tone of voice he might use when ordering French fries at McDonalds, that is, very matter of factly, he said that he had always admired Hitler because Hitler's an underdog.
I asked him to repeat the statement. His English is not always perfect and I wanted to make sure I heard him.
I tried to reason with him telling him who Hitler was and what he had done. I noted that in a world where Hitler ruled he would not have much of a life. 1. He's not white. 2. He's gay. 3. He's an immigrant.
But no matter. He still liked Hitler.
He just happens to find Hitler appealing.
From his perspective, the perspective of an underdog in a dog-eat-dog world, Hitler is another underdog.
How can this possibly be?
When I mentioned all the people Hitler killed Vien retorted that Americans had killed millions in Vietnam. When I pointed out the all too obvious differences he insisted that I was just seeing things from the American point of view.
But how was Hitler the underdog?
Vien's reasoning--and I am only guessing here--is that 1. America is the world's superpower. 2. Hitler is always being castigated by Americans. Hence 3. Hitler is the underdog.
Next time I hear that skin heads have gone on a rampage or roughed up some Jews I will think of Vien and wonder: What combination of individual emotional wounds and history lay behind their deeds.
We are mystified these days about the kinds of societies that produce terrorists. All too often we succumb to easy generalizations as an explanation. Vien's case shows how difficult it is to generalize. He's not poor. He's not under the spell of fanatical leaders. He's not religious.
He just happens to like Hitler. (Thankfully, he does not seem to want to implement Hitler's program of murder.)
Vien, we'll call him, is a 30 something Vietnamese American. His mother was Vietnamese, his father a white American soldier. From his looks you might think he's a more handsome Barack Obama and with a similarly multi-ethnic background similarly blessed with a very modern perspective.
I have talked with Vien at other times and knew he is actually tortured by his past. At a young age he was taken in by foster parents who regularly beat him. He escaped to America where he has no family.
By dint of hard work he has managed to build a middle class life for himself. He even owns a house in the suburbs. But the scars of the past left heavy welts on his emotional well-being.
This became evident the other day when he began talking about his upcoming vacation to Corsica. Why had he decided to go to Corsica, I wondered. It's not the usual tourist's destination.
Vien said that he had always been fascinated by Napoleon. Then, in a kind of dictator synapse, he somehow segged from Napoleon to Hitler. Then came the part that stunned me.
Speaking in a tone of voice he might use when ordering French fries at McDonalds, that is, very matter of factly, he said that he had always admired Hitler because Hitler's an underdog.
I asked him to repeat the statement. His English is not always perfect and I wanted to make sure I heard him.
I tried to reason with him telling him who Hitler was and what he had done. I noted that in a world where Hitler ruled he would not have much of a life. 1. He's not white. 2. He's gay. 3. He's an immigrant.
But no matter. He still liked Hitler.
He just happens to find Hitler appealing.
From his perspective, the perspective of an underdog in a dog-eat-dog world, Hitler is another underdog.
How can this possibly be?
When I mentioned all the people Hitler killed Vien retorted that Americans had killed millions in Vietnam. When I pointed out the all too obvious differences he insisted that I was just seeing things from the American point of view.
But how was Hitler the underdog?
Vien's reasoning--and I am only guessing here--is that 1. America is the world's superpower. 2. Hitler is always being castigated by Americans. Hence 3. Hitler is the underdog.
Next time I hear that skin heads have gone on a rampage or roughed up some Jews I will think of Vien and wonder: What combination of individual emotional wounds and history lay behind their deeds.
We are mystified these days about the kinds of societies that produce terrorists. All too often we succumb to easy generalizations as an explanation. Vien's case shows how difficult it is to generalize. He's not poor. He's not under the spell of fanatical leaders. He's not religious.
He just happens to like Hitler. (Thankfully, he does not seem to want to implement Hitler's program of murder.)