I saw this shared via the Emancipated Human Facebook page and wanted to make sure Steemit saw it as well. Give them a like over there for more good stuff.
When I re-shared it, a friend of a friend asked me on Facebook:
Just curious. Another Hitler comes along, what do you do about it?
Here was my reply:
That's a worthwhile thought experiment. I think it would involve a lot of disciplines to get an accurate setup and answer. For example, we'd have to look at psychology and history, and the global perspective of war and authoritarianism during the rise of Hitler. For many, war was honorable. After the carnage of WWI, WWII, etc... it's seen globally as far less so today (IMO). We'd have to look at the results of the Treaty of Versailles in creating what eventually became "Hitler" (not just the man, but the genocidal Nazism he spread and the many who willingly followed him). I'm not as concerned about one power-hungry megalomaniac, I'm concerned with all those with trigger fingers and weapons who follow that person's orders.
The root of the problem behind the next Hitler is authoritarian thinking, which is what this meme is actually deconstructing. It's people's belief in authority which gives a Hitler power. Take that away, and they are alone. So the answer is, I'm going to do what I'm doing now: spread information which deconstructs authoritarian thinking because it's that belief in authority which gives them power to harm others.
If that fails, and many choose violence and authoritarianism anyway and those people begin to threaten myself, my family, or people I love, I would take up arms and use defensive force to protect them and/or I would directly hire professionals to do so for me. As to whether or not I would advocate for someone to travel to another country to help fight against the new Hitler's army to protect others I'm not directly connected with... that's a more difficult question. Children are dying right now all over the world and most of us don't do much more than donate a bit of money to stop it. That's just as tragic, to me, but it's the reality of how our minds are wired for tribalistic empathy instead of more rational compassion.
To more directly answer your question, I'm not a pacifist. If the use of force is required to protect innocent lives, then that's what I'd be doing and encouraging others to do as well. I personally think non-violent communication is more effective, long term, though. More on that here.
