You know, the Gestapo was so absolutely hellish and evil and murderous that they should be invoked only rarely. There are degrees of everything, and not overreacting is important both as an obligation to history, and to maintaining credibility.
I lose credibility if I too readily compare strange people to Charles Manson, or Jeffrey Dahmer or Timothy McVeigh. Too many people get compared to Hitler. Rarely is the comparison apt. We have demagogues in New York who compare our Mayor Guiliani to Hitler. It's just "over the top."
I understand the uses of hyperbole in political debate. During the American Revolution, the patriots were fond of calling themselves "slaves." Slaves of King George III. Of course, many of these same slaves had a few real slaves back home who would have been stunned by the usage.
What I am trying to say, I guess, at too great a length, is that when a very powerful word is trotted out too frequently, it loses its power and meaning. Guiliani's Hitler, Clinton's Hitler, Hillary's Hitler, Reno's Hitler, etc, until the term eventually becomes meaningless. |
