In Memoriam: Adolf Hitler

Since Adolf Hitler died seventy-six years ago, most of my friends have said things like "Good: I hope he rots in hell.", "He got what he asked for, really...", and "Another famous junkie dead, then.".
And to tell you the truth, it's hard to blame them.
What, with the press coverage he got while he was alive, portraying him as some sort of mad drug addict who lived in a bunker, courted the press, and did crazy things like occupy the Rhineland, invade Poland, and dance a jig after the surrender of France.

But I urge those who feel this way to look at the state of Germany before he came to power, and see a visionary ahead of his time; a man who cared deeply about others - even if he couldn't help but hurt some people during his life...
I feel his ultimate decline to a genocidal drug addict residing in a bunker, and pushing imaginary armies around a map, epitomises how destructive being non-neurotypical can be without the right support – even when you have, seemingly, the world at your feet and all the cash you need to burn.

We have to remember that being neurologically untypical, in the framework of 1930s and 40s Germany, was no walk in the park - there were no support systems, and the mentally ill were persecuted as a matter of State policy.
That's why it makes me so angry to hear people say "He shouldn't have killed all them Jews.", "He chose to break the Treaty of Versailles in 1938 by invading Austria and declaring Anschluss. What do you expect?!", and "Hitler was evil."; yes - he chose to do these things, but only in the same way that Amy Winehouse chose to make all those mediocre songs, or David Cameron cosied up to Rupert Murdoch before - and after - the last election.

It's not a matter of a choice, for free, adult human beings who have the right and power and ability to choose...it's about wanting to do things, and doing them because we want to do them.

Hitler was a man; he was an architect; he was a visionary; a patriot; an artist; a son; a husband (for less than forty hours); and a human being, like everyone on Twitter except the spambots.

He was also some other things - but even without verifiable proof, and because it conforms to a comfortable, pre-conceived narrative which I adhere to, I am claiming that this wasn't his fault.

Society: this one's for you...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb7FgSzeGqg