Op-Ed: Do Hitler Parallels by Noted Historian Predict Future Woes?

Since the Presidential election folks have commented on the growth in extremism. This may have to do with election strife or compounding of divisions after the 9/11 attacks. For me it is what Trevor Roper said 40 years ago that worries me now.

Before reviewing Roper’s observations, one must underline the fact that Obama’s election has increased extreme reactions. There have been more racial attacks and Internet slurs. There have been unusual claims by both the right and the left about Obama, but before that considerable speculation about a right wing coalition bent on controlling the minds and hearts of the people. Science says that there is such a thing as group consensus building that arises when individuals of a certain belief are put into exclusive groups of mutual belief. The right wing person becomes more rightward thinking in those circumstances as does one with views to the left. So as the groups become more and more entrenched the reactions both verbally and physically have potential to be extreme. So what does that have to do with now, Germany and Trevor Roper? Trevor Roper was considered to be a foremost historian of the 20th century and an essayist on the life of Adolph Hitler. He addressed an assembly at the University of Washington in the early mid-sixties where his topic had to do with the parallels of German and United States history. It is what he said at the time about extremism that is of concern right now. For Roper had the perspective of history where he had documented, as a journalist, the life of Hitler in the context of what happened to Germany. He could recognize the elements that made up the extreme responses that brought Hitler to power. For that reason what he said at the time has relevance now. I heard Roper speak that day more than four decades ago, and his words came back on 9/11 because the event was so dramatic. As this new economic crisis has mounted, and the political divisions have increased, Roper’s words have taken on new meaning. This is what he said. Germany was founded upon expansionism, love of the gun, and a worship of the military, Roper told the large group in the auditorium at the University. The country believed it was the greatest in the world and that threats from the outside were challenges to its superiority. It is a Christian country, had a high literacy rate, a worship of people in uniforms and expansion based upon the subjugation of minorities. Roper said the United States has many of those characteristics of Germany, and then was asked if extremism that birthed Hitler could come to power in the United States. He responded it would be difficult because of the balance of power in the American government but declared it could if some conditions were met. Those conditions are what worry me now for they reflect precisely what he warned about. Roper underlined the ingredients for United States calamity in the German style as requiring a set of circumstances that included: (1) a precipitating event, like an attack, (2) an economic collapse, (3) extreme political divisions within the country, (4) disruption of the social system and a breakdown of institutional values, (5) the tolerance of extreme thinking, (5) demagoguery, (6) a need to project blame on the opposing side, (7) an inability for extreme groups to take responsibility for any problems of the government, (8) the distortion of history and science and the use of concrete definitions to manipulate information. At that time, Roper said, authoritarian government could occur and overthrow a democratically-elected one through pressure of disparate groups. Roper’s predictions fell on the ears of a young political science student and journalism major. Today these ears have heard many things that Roper talked about. And it seems to me that we must be watchful and recognize the march towards conflagration and take seriously our responsibility to educate, inform and hold power to account as is the professional calling of those who report the news.