Why Hitler Considered Himself a Good Person

Why Hitler Considered Himself a Good Person

 

BY: MADHAVA PURI DAS

 

Jul 10, 2016 — EUROPE (SUN) —

 

You may wonder what milk packages have to do with the headline. If you take a little time reading this you will most probably understand.

 

It is a psychological fact that every person has a need to feel good about himself or herself – one way or the other – regardless of how he/she behaves. I am not talking just about rationalizations, but of actual values. Whatever bad things a person might do, like robbing, killing or committing violence, he needs to de-valuate the victim in some way. The worse the act, the grosser the de-valuation.

 

As a classic example, we could mention fully armed U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam war, who killed unarmed North Vietnamese mothers with children. One thing is to face a more or less equally armed opponent in battle, while killing unarmed persons who should actually be protected, is an entirely different story. That takes more “guts”…

 

The way these soldiers could carry out such heinous acts, and still regard themselves good people, was to de-valuate the victims by designating them as “the yellow pest of the earth”, “gooks”, etc. In other words, making it right to “liberate” the planet from them.

 

Hitler did a similar thing: he concocted a whole philosophy that blamed the Jewish population for everything thinkable that was considered bad in current and past history, thus making it “right” to extinguish them as a race. That process was then regarded as the topmost service to mankind. He believed firmly in his concocted reality and honestly thought he did good to the world.

 

Such behaviour is the result of one of the most common psychological phenomena, called “cognitive dissonance”. Cognitive Dissonance

 

Cognitive dissonance arises in the mind when reality does not fit into one’s own preconceptions. At that point one attempts to somehow reconcile the situation by adjusting – rarely one’s preconceptions, but the way one perceives reality.

 

However, as everyone – at least in theory – understands, it would be more successful to adjust one’s preconceptions rather than to try change reality. One wants things to “fit into one’s world”, by all means. And particularly this applies to one’s conception of oneself as a good person. How to Deal with Cognitive Dissonance

 

From the writings of Srila Prabhupada it is clear that he was very concerned with the state of affairs in America when he landed there in 1965. He brought with him the entire Krishna conscious philosophy and the culture within which the peaceful execution of it could take place. But at that time there seemed to be an unbridgeable gap between what he wanted to accomplish and how things were going on at the time.

 

So, he gradually introduced Krishna consciousness and the spiritual culture accompanying it in small doses. However, in his books, that are to last for the next 10,000 years, he described the complete process and the high standards he was aiming for, for his movement.

 

At the end, when he was preparing to leave the planet, he was very much stressing the next phase of the introduction of Krishna consciousness. That is – as we all would know by now – the establishment of the daivi varnasrama system. The system is centered around Cow Protection, and the proper engagement of devotees (kanishtha, madyama and uttama) according to their individual qualities and skills.

 

Unfortunately, 40 years later, ISKCON is still a work in progress when it comes to the establishment of varnasrama. Some say that the house where everyone could live, that Srila Prabhupada wanted to build, is still a “construction site”. It is not because of lack of resources. The movement has been able to build a multi-million dollar Vedic temple and planetarium. No, a major reason is cognitive dissonance.

 

While a pure devotee, an uttama-adhikari, does not have to abide by the varnasrama dharma (but still does, just to set the example), the rest of us who are not pure devotees (let’s face it) should. The pure devotee considers himself lower than the lowest, while the rest of us do not want to face the fact that we would be anything less than a brahmana – rather we are all Vaisnavas situated even above the brahmanas. Which, of course, could not be further away from the truth. As a matter of fact, if a devotee considers himself situated higher than others, he at the same time proves himself being situated on the kanistha platform. How lucky we are, having Srila Prabhupada’s books

 

When someone tries to concoct a new theory, because of cognitive dissonance and reluctance to change or adjust, it becomes too obvious (and embarrassing) when compared with the teachings found in Srila Prabhupada’s books. They are the description of that reality and those standards which we might have such a hard time adjusting to. There may be interim stages before reaching the standards described there, but remember: these stages should be temporary, interim. They should not last 40 years or longer.

 

So, when someone – high or low – comes up with some new philosophy which contrasts to Srila Prabhupada’s books (however attractive it appears to those strongly influenced by the modes of nature), then it should be immediately rejected by an intelligent devotee.

 

To summarize, according to our preconceptions and attachments we may experience cognitive dissonance, and rather than giving up these things and surrender, we may opt to create some new theory or value system that justifies these preconceptions or attachments.

 

For example, people who do not want to give up eating meat or drinking industrial milk have therefore de-valued the cows, pigs etc, are putting a number tag in their ears (here in the EU), and simply labeling them – not “yellow pest” or “gooks” – but “productions units”. So, before we call slaughterhouses “houses of liberation”, and claim that we do the cows a great service by offering their milk to Krishna, better make sure that such philosophy has a solid foundation in Srila Prabhupada’s books.

 

The reality is, that to follow the instruction of its Founder-Acarya and his predecessors, ISKCON needs to set the example for gorakshya, in which you will find no such thing as supporting the market for industrial milk from tortured cows.

 

But if Hitler by intricate means could do what he did, and still look himself in the mirror and see a good person, then maybe we in ISKCON could do so, too? And continue avoiding the establishment of varnasrama and Cow Protection as a global organizational policy.

 

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