are some people born nazis, or is it something they learn?

[mopaul]

i wonder, if there aren't some people who are naturally inclined to become sadists and war criminals. we all use the nazi model when speaking of human depravity, but there have always been sadistic assholes, and there always will be.

any war is witness to the most debased behavior, and some suggest that any normal person can do awful, insane things under the right conditions. but there are some people who are reluctant to swat a fly, while others enjoy killing people.

i for instance, have never gone hunting and killed an animal, i'm too much of a sissy. but i do eat animals. and i have met people who are naturally sadistic toward animals, killing them for sport, not food.

in the concentration camps like auschwitz and treblinka, german officers became unspeakable monsters, and did things to fellow humans that defy definition, and then they'd go home to a nice meal with wine and music around the hearth with the kids.

i would have made a lousy nazi, cause i'm squeamish. i could never strike another human being for no good reason, let along torture or kill them. not even if i was in the army with the sarge sreaming at me and facing a court-martial. it just ain't in me.

[Cleita]

1. There definitely is something in the way people are wired

sometimes. It's far too complicated to do a post on though. Although environment has a lot to do with how sociopaths are raised from the bottom up, there are some physical and chemical influences too.

[wtmusic]

2. A lot of it has to do with exposure to physical violence early on

People often remarked how such a charismatic figure as Ted Bundy could kill women by beating them to death with a baseball bat--yet Ted's early childhood included such pastimes as watching Grandpa swing cats by the tail, then smash their skulls open against a wall.

Wonder if there's a connection?

[KittyWampus]

3. What's That Song From South Pacific (the musical)?

:)

[SharonAnn]

14. "It has to be carefully taught"

That's the song.

[seabeyond]

4. its taught

see a baby, hold the hand of a toddler, a 5 year old in their lite, it is taught

these childen innately are borned of love. then it is the conditioning they are given from there.

[Longhorn79]

5. Nature vs. Nurture

If you answer that question, you'll be rich. It could be applied to a bunch of things. Are people born homosexual? Personally, I feel the "nurture" plays the greatest role in something like serial killing and the like. How many of them came from a good, loving home?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

6. Both

I don't think many people are born with an irrevocable and unchangeable disposition to be a sadist or war criminal, but perhaps a personality that makes them susceptible to the influences that might have that result.


On the other hand, there probably are some people who are born with an irrevocable and unchangeable disposition to be a sadist or war criminal.

[izzie]

7. Look up Stanley Milgram. He also wondered so looked into it.

Scary. and the test on the prison and college kids is another one to read and make your hair stand on end. Calif. college did that one.

[riverwalker]

8. Ernest Becker studied evil

and wrote "Denial of Death" and it's been over 20 years since I read it, but his theory was (just from memory) something like: Those who kill, torture do so to exert power over another, in order to feel omipotent and god-like, and do so to avoid facing the fact that they will someday die. (It made more sense in the book.) Elizabeth Kublar- Ross and Scott Peck sort of say the same in their books.
Lots of spiritual traditions make you look your death square in the face as a tool, and you can't advance until you do.

[kodi]

9. although it hurts my soul to say so, some people are just born bad

i've seen the best of homes and families turn out monsters, and the worst of circumstances be the soil where angels grow.

it seems to come down to a person's capacity for empathy. some have it, others have none, and those are the monsters of this world.

[JanMichael]

10. Nature and Nurture. Sometimes they both end up pointing straight to Hell.

Where as most people have competing urges they (Nazi Fucks) feel no pull to the light side, it's all pushing to the Reich.

[markses]

11. Everyone is born a nazi and an angel

And everyone can switch to nazi or angel at any time.

Desire's funny that way.

[troublemaker]

12. disilusionment with strong (mythic) father figure helps

[PATRICK]

13. The study on psycho killers

says two of three things are always present: brain damage, a history of abuse, insanity. That is rather blunt and deals with a small minority.
Another study talks about conservatives and the fear factor. Judging from the chickenhawks they might be suffering from inadequacy in the flight/fight response which is probably nature's way of guaranteeing the survival of a chunk of the human race in two natural crises.

It is hard to know some of these people, but I suspect parental abuse might be one factor along with some resentment over social inferiority.
The type of cosmic thinking they are capable of is not reality so much as wish based for personal gratification and especially affirmation without responsibility.

Unfortunately a study of mistreatment showed a larger number of people than that can be lead to doing terrible things to others. That study leads to the other minority- those who will say authority be damned and refuse to follow orders when it comes to inflicting pain on others. The conductor of that test was surprised and dismayed.

In effect, we can all allow ourselves to be misled or whatever, but we can mostly all be brutalized(or else join the victims) so we should take no comfort at all that "they" or "we" are that different under the skin.

Vigilance and work for values. Hierarchy of values must place compassion very very high.

[rebellious woman]

15. Cruelty must

be in some people...I believe "raised in it" and
"brainwashed into" it.