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In the second year of our engineering degree, we devote a few hours a week to a subject called "Soft Skills" (I'm a bit miffed that the university thinks that people who opt for Comp. Sci. (or IT) lack soft skills - this is not a requirement for any other course).
Now, this week we were asked to conduct mock interviews of random people from our batch. A person from my group asked another person who their idol was.
"Hitler."
I couldn't believe it in the beginning. What sort of an idiot answers "Hitler" to a question like that, in an environment supposed to simulate a corporate interview? I raised an objection (even though I wasn't really involved, I couldn't let something like this go).
Then came the next bombshell. Everyone except me in that little group actually agreed with that girl. I raised the question of the slaughter of 6 million Jews. Another girl's reply to that was most memorable - "He didn't do it, his lower officers did it without him knowing, or his consent."
WTF? Sincerely, just WTF? In what world are these people living? Maybe I'm a bit of an exception in this matter - I've gone through a large and meticulous chronicle of Nazi atrocities when I was thirteen or fourteen years old (I gave up halfway because I realised it would only be more of the same), but I expect that the education system have imparted to these people at least a rough idea of what he did.
And this is not an isolated phenomenon. I've come across far too many people who think Hitler was a great man, ranging from the ages of five to twenty-five, to dismiss this. I'd venture to say that at least half or more of people my age admire the guy.
What sort of blindness can cause this? If this is what our educated, middle class (or affluent), and liberal youth is thinking, where are we heading? What is going to happen to the nation when people like this run the country?
Now, this week we were asked to conduct mock interviews of random people from our batch. A person from my group asked another person who their idol was.
"Hitler."
I couldn't believe it in the beginning. What sort of an idiot answers "Hitler" to a question like that, in an environment supposed to simulate a corporate interview? I raised an objection (even though I wasn't really involved, I couldn't let something like this go).
Then came the next bombshell. Everyone except me in that little group actually agreed with that girl. I raised the question of the slaughter of 6 million Jews. Another girl's reply to that was most memorable - "He didn't do it, his lower officers did it without him knowing, or his consent."
WTF? Sincerely, just WTF? In what world are these people living? Maybe I'm a bit of an exception in this matter - I've gone through a large and meticulous chronicle of Nazi atrocities when I was thirteen or fourteen years old (I gave up halfway because I realised it would only be more of the same), but I expect that the education system have imparted to these people at least a rough idea of what he did.
And this is not an isolated phenomenon. I've come across far too many people who think Hitler was a great man, ranging from the ages of five to twenty-five, to dismiss this. I'd venture to say that at least half or more of people my age admire the guy.
What sort of blindness can cause this? If this is what our educated, middle class (or affluent), and liberal youth is thinking, where are we heading? What is going to happen to the nation when people like this run the country?
Hitler, what exactly do they admire him for? The brilliant way in which he waged a war on two fronts? His incredible posture? The mustache?
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