Ordinary Men vs. Ordinary Germans

It is simplistic to assume that every German was a blood-thirsty, anti-semetic demagogue. That's plain bigotry towards a group of people based on their nationality. There has been anti-semitism all over the world with brutal policies aimed directly at Jews. Along with Germany, Russia, Poland, Spain, France, and other countries have a history of antisemistism. Why do historians often target Germany as the hotbed of anti-semistism and the holacoust. Well it is mainly because the Holacoaust is a relatively recent genocidal event involving Jews that was caputured in pictures, films, and pop culture. Even today, there are suvivors of the Holacoust that are still alive.

Therefore many historians tend to focus solely on Germany since there is widespread data available. But in retrospect, I am not going to declare that all Germans in the end wanted to see the Jews massacred. There was massive Nazi propaganda which was state sponsored via a 24 hour cycle of constant bombarded of hate towards Judaism that appeared in schools, films, newspapers, and almost infested in every inch of public space in Germany. In addition, intimidation and political oppression with a grandiose sadio-machismo party machine in full effect, there is not doubt that the German society became a mass flock of sheep following the wolf's orders to go after every Jewish person.

A more recent example is in China where the state has influence in every Chinese person's lives. The state controls the media, the internet, and every public instititution. Even private businesses have to follow what the Communist party dictates. It can be assumed that an average Chinese person thinks Dalai Lama is out to disrupt unity and harmony in China by supporting Tibet's independence. There is also the widespread that the Western media portrays China unfairly and tends to harm the country's image internationaly.

When you are faced with intimidation, state brutality, and a constant reckless bombardment of one-sided message continoulsy being over played, eventually society will conform to it. There is no doubt that Germans will have to feel the guilt of electing a mad men to run their lives. Remember the Nazi party came to power through a democratic election. There is no doubt that there was a substantial number of Germans guilty one or another of helping the Nazis implement the "final solution" of the Jews. But today Germans fully accept that the Holacoust was a large black hole in their nation's history. It is said that no one is innocent and that is true especially in Rwanda, Sudan, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and numerous stories involving indigenious people fighting for their land and livelihood.

Here is my take on ordinary men vs ordinary germans. Men are naturally, I believe, evil and everyone is out to look after themselves. The Germans have always been ordinary men and they are not alone in having a history of committing a grave genocide that lead to the murder of six million Jews. Liberal democracies such as the United States, Canada, and Australia have all, you can argue, been founded on the genocide of indigenous people. Ordinary settlers in the United States and Canada pushed the Native Americans off their ancestral land rather than respect their land and way of life. My point is what constitutes an ordinary man? It is not based on race. like Germans, Americans are equally guilty of committing genocide as well as having an infamous history of maintaing slavery of African Americans. The same can be said about Spanish conquistadors and their invasion of Latin America, the Armenian genocide, the Apartheid, the break up of Yugoslavia and the ugly civil war that followed.

Every society has taken orders from the top to carry out horrific acts of genocide against another race. So the question does of ordinary men vs. ordinary Germans does not pertain to Germany itself. The question should be extended to ordinary men vs. ordinary Americans, ordinary British people. I take that example since liberal democracies are equally guilty of committing a similar incident like the Holacoust.

I have written what I think now, but my views will change as I grow older and more mature on this debate.