I received the following email responding to the headline (directly below) of an issue of the LSS Newsletter  that was distributed last week: "Richard, is there a source for  the quote below attributed to Trump?"

HITLER: "We may be inhumane, but if we rescue Germany, we have performed the greatest deed in the world."

TRUMP: "We may be inhumane, but if we make America great again, we have performed the greatest deed in the world."

The statement attributed to Hitler is something he actually said. I created the Trump quote to show the structural similarity between the thinking of each of these men. For Hitler, "rescuing" Germany was judged to be the greatest deed in the world. In the name of this objective--rescuing Germany--any and all forms of behavior were deemed to be justifiable.

Trump too has performed inhumane acts (of course nothing comparable to what Hitler did). I theorize that he justifies whatever harm he causes according to his objective of "making America great;" rescuing her from what makes her weak.

I suggest that this structure of thought governs the actions of many other political leaders:

  • Stalin: "We may be inhumane (killing "kulaks" and other members of the capitalist class), but if we rescue the Russian people, we have performed the greatest deed in the world." 
     
  • Mao: "We may be inhumane (killing landlords, etc.), but if we rescue the Chinese people we have performed the greatest deed in the world."
     
  • Lincoln: "We may be inhumane (by causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers), but if we 'save the Union' we will have performed the greatest deed in the world."
     
  • Woodrow Wilson (America's participation in the First World War): "We may be inhumane (cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of American soldiers), but if we "make the world safe for democracy," we will have performed the greatest deed in the world."
     
  • Bin Laden's killing of "infidels" at the World Trade Center: "We may be inhumane, but if we rescue Allah, we will have performed the greatest deed."
     
  • George W. Bush's war against Iraq "We may inhumane (killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis), but if we 'bring democracy to the Middle-East,' we have performed the greatest deed in the world."

THEORETICAL CONCLUSION: Collective forms of violence/killing/murder, etc. are not motivated by "primitive aggression," rather are undertaken in the name of a moral purpose: a superordinate idea or value considered more significant than the lives of particular human beings.