Like everybody else, I’m shocked, horrified and disgusted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Sitting here in the comfort of my house in Hasketon, I long to be able to do something, but apart from the obvious donations to aid agencies and encouraging our government to support Ukraine as much as possible, I’m really not in a position to do much to help.
The problem is, I think, that we all spend the vast majority of our time interworking with reasonable, sensible and pragmatic people. People who, generally speaking, think like we do even if we don’t agree. But occasionally we encounter that dreaded individual, the idiot.
Now the problem is that the idiot, has his/her life-times experience of being an idiot, and they’re rather good at it. On the other hand, we, as the rational and sensible person, have comparatively little experience of actually dealing with idiotic people. So right of the bat, they have a tremendous advantage over us, and usually we come off second best. They understand themselves, we do not.
So when we look at Putin, we think the man is clearly insane but really have no idea, intellectually, how to assimilate his way of thinking: the attitude simply does not compute.
So this is why I found myself reaching for my DVD of the brilliant and harrowing 2004 German film ‘Downfall’ (Der Untergang). It covers the last 10 days of Hitler’s life, spent almost entirely inside his underground bunker in Berlin. It’s horrible, really horrible, but strangely compelling, so you can’t stop watching as he rants and raves about his situation, surrounded by loyal Nazi supporters. For example, he says,
“I have always obeyed this law of nature by never permitting myself to feel compassion. I have ruthlessly suppressed domestic opposition and brutally crushed the resistance of alien races.”
and
“If the war is lost then it is of no concern to me if the people perish in it. I still would not shed a single tear for them because they did not deserve any better”.
Perhaps the worst bit is watching Magda Goebbels as she murders her 6 children because she can’t face the idea of them not being raised under National Socialism.
Do watch it. The cast are brilliant, and it’s all historically accurate. You won’t enjoy it at all, but if helps you get inside the mind of psychopathically deranged people like Hitler, and now Putin, you’ll be glad that you did.