How Did Hitler Abuse Power

Of all the facets of society, one universal theme that is present in every society in history is power. Since the evolution of mankind, power has been present; man has ruled over, bribed, murdered, helped, taxed, and taught man as long as there has been a man. Why is this? Why do people need power? Why do people give power? It seems that power is inherent to being a human, and being able to control each other is part of the human condition. This presence of power and the ability to control one another has undoubtedly negative and positive effects on mankind. For instance, power can be used to organize people for a common goal or mission, however, whether this is positive or negative is determined by what that goal is. A positive goal would

Hitler is probably the most visible person who has ever abused power, in the sense that many people know who he is and what he did and that what he did was wrong. However, there are those who would just say that Hitler abused his power because he was given too much but, a person who had a similar amount of power at the same time was FDR. The presence of a person at the same time with the same amount of power who did not abuse it leaves only Hitler’s own dispositions and opinions responsible for his abuse of power. And Hitler had his predispositions and beliefs long before he had any power to act upon them. This is shown in the quote which refers to Hitler’s young life in an orphanage,“During this period, Hitler read many right-wing newspapers and magazines that linked Social Democrats with the Jews. Later, he would write in his autobiography that the roots of his lifelong hatred of the Jews were planted during these years in Vienna. He gradually became aware, he said, of what he saw as their evil influence on the city’s political, economic, and cultural life. (Giblin 14)” This illustrates that Hitler did indeed have his predispositions before he rose to power. And even at a very young age, Hitler had started to believe that a whole race of people was responsible for all the problems of his life and his city. This is the belief that he acted upon when he persecuted the Jewish people during WW2, and with this evidence, it is easy to prove that he had his beliefs before he had power. However, one could say “Hitler was a kid,” and “Kids change their opinions all the time,” and this is possible, he very well could have changed his opinion as a kid, so more evidence is needed to prove that he indeed had that opinion before he rose to power. That evidence is another quote from Giblin, “As Hitler