Soldato
- Joined
- 6 Feb 2004
- Posts
- 3,450
- Location
- Wiltshire
Happy VE day! Also all the english brave men who were still fighting and those who were killed in the pacific.
sorry but that's too zen for me. we're not comparing pasta sauces, snooker players or graphics cards here.
Hitler set in motion some of the worst atrocities ever committed in history. To say that his nature could somehow be defined as neither good nor bad means that the acts he ordered could also be seen as neither good nor bad??
when qualitative terms like good, bad, lazy, conscientious etc etc are used in everyday language, they're not used as absolute concepts.
no one is saying that every single thought and action Hitler produced was "bad" - but rather his expansionist and genocidal policies were so abhorrent that overall "bad" label stuck
i think that's where I disagree with you. behavioural trends are very real, and if someone displays more of one quality (or deviancy) then society has a right to praise or punish them.
in terms of the VE day celebrations, yes, there were brave soldiers on both sides - but the elite NAZI leadership were instrumental in following a very deviant policy, and regardless if they personally had some minor redeeming qualities these would not counterbalance what they were doing
to try and make a case for justifying NAZI actions as being part of some broad spectrum of normal behaviour wins no votes with me
Well that's your choice. You believe that someone can be inherently bad or good from birth, I don't believe that someone is inherently bad or good. Nothing wrong with that, everyone has different ways of thinking.
(i should point out that nowhere did I say that I justify their actions, nor anywhere did i say that society should not punish them for their actions. All I ever said, which I believe I have already explained once, is that I don't believe that a person is inherently good or bad.)
I don't want to get into this but an example of bad people would be the family of baby Peter or the family that abused the ill man to his death for years (I forget his name).
Happy VE day
Indeed, their actions towards baby p were despicable and horrific, though again I don't suppose they were "bad" when they were 4 years old, or 8 etc. In essence ,they weren't born bad or inherently bad.
we're going round in circles...
you seem to think that we can't call anyone bad unless everything they ever did was bad
that doesn't happen, even the worst person in the world (name Hitler springs to mind) was somewhat genial at times - the point is most people look at an overall picture of someone's moral fibre and make a judgement
in that sense Hitler was waaaay baad!
You aren't always as you are when you where born though.
People change.
I can only assume its a bit of a boring weekend and you're just seeking an internet argument to pass the time![]()
I don't consider Hitler to necessarily be a bad man
... hey if you're taking the bait...![]()
... no mention of "inherently"
sure no-one is born "bad" that's a stupid thing to say, but Hitler definitely became one
Well I am a touch limited at the moment by what I can do as my daughter is asleep on the sofa next to me and I dont want to wake her up.
Yeah thats because at first I momentarily forgot that I was on an internet forum where you have to be precise and explain everything exactly or people jump down your throat, was only after I remembered that I made sure to put inherently in.
Absolutely, I agree that for a period (some would say the most crucial period) of his life he could be defined as being "bad". Nevertheless though that still doesnt mean that he was inherently bad (as proven by the period prior). I never said he wasnt "bad" during WW2, only that he wasnt inherently bad, which I still stick to and which you must agree with as you admit that nobody can be born "bad" thus agreeing that no-one can be inherently bad. So it seems we are in agreement and thereby ends our momentary distractions from life.