For me it is rather the other way round. I have always had a cynical head, even as a child, and have never confused the work that people do with the people who they are.
Most of the people proclaimed as heroes throughout the ages have been deeply flawed, troubled individuals.
Indeed. Talented and creative people, despite doing great work are often questionable, even downright nasty, individuals.
By contrast, People who I might have disregarded when young, I have come to realise sometimes have admirable qualities that go way beyond the nasty things that they might have used them for.
I used to admire Hitler but when I found out he turned vegetarian, wow, he went right down in my book.
I mean he did some great work, i heard he designed the kdf funwagon, AKA the Volkswagen beetle.
Since you mention it, as an example of this, Hitler is a particularly easy person to disregard. At best, he is easy to ridicule with the funny little mustache, the grown up boy scout outfits that he wore, particularly in the earlier years, and the ranting speeches. (Even at the time, Chaplins "Great Dictator" anybody?) At worst he is easy to hate as being the physical incarnation of some sort of demonic presence straight from the ninth circle of Hell.
And yet, And even 70 years on, it is still probabally #Toosoon, but...
I have no doubt that in, say, 500 years time. Adolf Hitler will be regarded as one of the (If not "the" the) most extraordinary natural leaders of all history. And here is why...
When we go back through history and look at the people who have achieved the status of "Great Leader".
We think of people like the Greats (Ramses, Alexander, even our own Alfred. and so on)
We think of people like Genghis Khan, The First Quin Emperor (And so on)
And more recently people Like Napoleon Bonaparte.
Now, while these were all undoubtedly great leaders who made their own mark on history. they all had one thing in common.
One way or another they all had a head start. Most were already royalty in their own right. and even commoners like Napoleon were people who already had a position in life that they were able to build on over time (Napoleon was a career officer who moved up through the ranks and only became Emperor after half a lifetime of steady progression that allowed him to display and develop his undoubted talent for command.)
But Hitler had none of this. He was a total nobody, He had no underlying high social status, no privileged education, no personal wealth to draw on. He took over a fringe political party at a time when it was on the outer fringe of the fringe with less than 60 members (Hitler was the 55th) and through sheer force of personality and utterly relentless determination, 14 years later He ruled Germany and less than ten years after that he had transformed Germany from a demoralized and economically destitute nation into a confident military superpower that engaged in a splurge of (Initially) unstoppable empire building that it took the combined forces of the worlds three greatest Empires to defeat.
And even then it wasn't easy!
Do I think Hitler was really a nice chap who has been misunderstood by history? Of course not.
But I
do take the Louis Farrakhan position.
Hitler was a very great man. He wasn't great for me as a Black man but he was a great German and he rose Germany up from the ashes of her defeat by the united force of all of Europe and America after the First World War. Yet Hitler took Germany from the ashes and rose her up and made her the greatest fighting machine of the twentieth century, brothers and sisters, and even though Europe and America had deciphered the code that Hitler was using to speak to his chiefs of staff, they still had trouble defeating Hitler even after knowing his plans in advance. Now I'm not proud of Hitler's evil toward Jewish people, but that's a matter of record. He rose Germany up from nothing.
Hitlers admirable qualities were not what he did as such, or even how he did it.
His admirable quality's were his sheer and unstoppable determination, against all the odds, to achieve his objectives, from a starting position where he had literally nothing to his name. (Dont forget, it wasn't just words, He was injured during the "Putch" and served a prison sentence on top of that. He also miraculously survived multiple assassination attempts. A less determined man would have given up.)
Somehow he managed to combine the roles of being an astute and commanding politician, a Rock star, and a messianic leader all at the same time. And he did it more or less all on his own
(The Nazis created the modern rock concert. All rock concerts today essentially follow the presentation strategy of the Nuremberg and other rallies
)
It is easy to crack jokes about "Triumph of the Will" But in Hitlers case, this is exactly what it was.
It really is quite extraordinary and i struggle to think of any leader from history who has come anywhere close to the extent of his incredible personal achievement from such humble beginnings.
For good or ill, there is a lesson there for all of us.
