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Old 10-02-2013, 05:19 PM
 
Location: Planet Earth
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In starting a thread about sociopaths, I wonder if Adolph Hitler would qualify.

The question is, is this person, himself a sociopath?

Also, who is more responsible for following this dictator, the dictator himself or the people who allowed him to come to power?
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Old 10-03-2013, 12:04 PM
 
Location: In bucolic TN
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You may want to start more broadly with leaders of world powerful countries, then go to times when there is turbulence. I wonder however how Khrushchev, Castro and Kennedy would have compared psychologically? Or how this would have looked with Mao, Stalin, Mussolini, Tojo, and Hitler? Did the time require it or the people of the land? How did any of the leaders know when to create détente or to move ahead in battle? What would the countries have looked like if any of the leaders had backed down? And there are so many others, creating their own private hells: Idi Amin, Duvalier, and those who were in South Africa before Nelson Mandela. Sometimes you need a very strong person to repel others. This doesn't justify dominance and slaughter but there is absolutely a zeitgeist that nearly requires such posturing. When do guerillas become freedom fighters? This is a very narrow edge to balance upon, but I commend you for your spirit of discovery.
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Old 10-03-2013, 01:54 PM
 
Location: Victoria TX
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Political life is a juggernaut, and one gets swept along by it. Once you commit yourself to politics, you either try to ride along on top, or hang on for dear life, or get crushed beneath it. More than a few tyrants discovered that they had a wonderful knack for leading the electorate, but when they got to the top, they had to do pretty unsavory things to stay ahead of all those who wanted to knock them off the top. The business of state become a choice of killing your enemies, or turning over the reins of power to them.

A goodly number of dictators imagined themselves early on as benign, with the power to steer the nation in a way that would be good for the commonweal. Castro and Tito come to mind, and even Ceausescu if you examine his early years, right down to the petty ones like Maurice Bishop in Grenada. But something always goes horribly wrong, and then it's self-defense the whole way down.
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Old 10-04-2013, 08:20 PM
 
Location: In bucolic TN
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If you lead, will people follow? David Koresh, Jim Jones, Warren Jeffs, Charlie Manson? There may be a continuum, from a 'fan base' with a person like Liberace, to inordinate devotion, to desire to die for a cause. And what separates the latter from those who are contracted to die (military) or those contracted to death (paid killers). Absolute power corrupts. Yet we wouldn't have power if we didn't have followers. Maybe a chicken and the egg question.
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Old 10-05-2013, 07:44 PM
 
Location: 53179
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I think there are "many" sociopaths among us, however, most of them don't kill or physically hurt people.

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk 4

Last edited by glass_of_merlot; 10-05-2013 at 08:12 PM..
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Old 10-07-2013, 12:38 PM
 
Location: So Ca
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FlowerPower00 View Post
I wonder if Adolph Hitler would qualify. Also, who is more responsible for following this dictator, the dictator himself or the people who allowed him to come to power?
Hitler was probably a psychopath. From what I've read, he had a mother who thought he could do no wrong and spoiled him, and a father who physically--and possibly emotionally--abused him. Combine that upbringing with whatever genetic traits he had, and he was already pretty far out on the antisocial spectrum long before he came to power.
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Old 10-08-2013, 08:50 PM
 
Location: Planet Earth
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CA4Now View Post
Hitler was probably a psychopath. From what I've read, he had a mother who thought he could do no wrong and spoiled him, and a father who physically--and possibly emotionally--abused him. Combine that upbringing with whatever genetic traits he had, and he was already pretty far out on the antisocial spectrum long before he came to power.
Do you think some of the rejection he experienced pushed him over the edge?
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Old 10-09-2013, 12:50 PM
 
Location: So Ca
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FlowerPower00 View Post
Do you think some of the rejection he experienced pushed him over the edge?
Definitely.

It would be interesting to study Mussolini or Stalin. Or even Bashar Assad in Syria, although he doesn't seem quite as bad as some of the others.
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