Question

How did Adolf Hitler use "The Blame Instinct" from Factfulness?

Answer 1

Answer:

Blame instinct is the human need to find the reason and solution to every problem and to find the one concrete person or group to blame and to punish. We believe that if we can blame someone and punish them, we can somehow rightfully fix the problem. Adolf Hitler felt the blame instinct for the bad events in his personal life and the political status of Germany. He wanted desperately to fix the problem, so he blamed the Jewish people for everything. As it often happens with the blame instinct, his condemnation was exaggerated and punishment absolutely ill-placed. This all resulted in genocide and one of the most horrendous events in history.

Explanation:

The blame instinct as explained by Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling, and Anna Rosling Rönnlund in Factfulness, is the urge to find a reason and put someone to blame for the negative and bad events that happen. People usually have the instinct to have a clear individual who will be blamed and take the responsibility for the unfortunate events. This instinct makes us exaggerate the role and guilt of someone in a certain situation, and makes our emotions with to punish them. The blame instinct makes us think that by quickly blaming someone and disciplining them we do not have to look for the cause of the problem elsewhere and somehow the balance can be restored. This is oversimplifying the situation, but it is our first gut feeling. In reality, there is often no one to blame, or the group responsible for the problem is elaborated and complex. Sometimes we are the part of the group to blame, and it is hard to admit it.

Adolf Hitler was blaming Jews for the fall of Germany, the consequences of world war I, economical struggle, as well as his own problems during the youth, and his unsuccessful life as a painter in Vienna. He channeled his anger (which often comes simply from fear and sadness) into the blame and antisemitic ideas.

Instead of seeing the problems in his inability to become a painter, or in Germany’s national politics during the war, he jumped to the idea someone else is to blame. He desperately wanted an instant fix and someone who will be an outside factor to his and his country’s problems. The long history of antisemitism is evidence that even before Jews were the group likely blamed for many things, so Hitler simply poured his frustrations into the existing nationalistic idea. He exaggerated this idea more and more during the time. He also thought Jews are to be punished for this, and that the genocide over them might have somehow fixed the problem.

In all of this, we see that Hitler’s blame instinct and the desperate need to rationalize bad events in his life and the political status of Germany resulted in one of the worst events and tragedies in history. The abnormal exaggeration of the problem, blame, and punishment led to the unproductive and horrendous “solution” that ended up helping no one but only causing even more bad effects and problems.