Crazy but not Insane

I was recently taking a gander at the Unabomber Manifesto, a rather extreme, yet fairly spot-on description of societal evolution with technology. While being incredibly psychopathic and disturbing, might I also add that the truth is always disturbing. We all know the old saying, "Sometimes the truth hurts." I feel that that could be shortened to be more accurate: the truth hurts. While reading the introduction to Ted Kaczynski's manifesto I found myself somewhat admiring the man's foresight and forthcoming honesty. He makes no attempt to sugarcoat anything, and though it may be incredibly dark and foreboding, I find that his foresight into how technology will devastate society psychologically is bleakly accurate. When someone makes a statement like the opening paragraph, it's hard to not admire such prophecy, especially since we are seeing his predictions actually occurring. Recently a 22-year old mother murdered her child because he interrupted her playing Farmville. I think it is fair to say Kacynski was right about a number of things.

I felt the same way when I first decided to look up what Hitler's painting looked like. It's a pretty standard fallacy to say, "Well, Hitler was rejected from art school," as if to say he sucked at painting, how could he govern a nation? Two problems arise here, the first being that Hitler's paintings were mostly of buildings. He even says in Mein Kampf that he was told he should be in architecture school, not art school. The second is that when we hear he was a painter, we immediate correlate the person with talent. But when I first saw some of his paintings, I was shocked at how good they were... for a thirteen year old boy. I remember my drawings from the age of thirteen, and I couldn't get linear perspective down while sketching, something Hitler did very well. While his paintings are not spectacular, they demonstrate a great amount of potential for such a young person. Imagine if that potential had been nourished, we might actually be learning about Adolf Hitler in 20th Century Art History class, instead of hearing about him from skinheads.

I discuss these two examples because I have to challenge common thought. Hitler was a bad person, so his paintings must have been awful, when in fact they are quite beautiful. Ted Kaczynski was crazy, so his writings must have been paranoid and demented, when they are actually a fairly accurate prediction of how society's collective psyches will be dramatically changed for the worst.

So I must ask, are these improper assumptions? Is it wrong to say, "Hitler's paintings are quite beautiful," just because he exterminated six million Jews? Is it wrong to say, "The Unabomber's Manifesto is amazingly accurate," just because he was a psychopath and killed a bunch of innocent people? Consider the question a sort of thought exercise in the seven-degrees of separation. Just because Jack knows Kate, and Kate knows John, and John throws his dog in front of a moving train, does that mean Jack is to be judged in the same way John is judged? (I know this is a strawman fallacy, but think of it as a thought exercise). If Hitler made some beautiful paintings as a child, should we judge his paintings in the same way we judge his decision to commit genocide?

I personally think it's unfair. I think we can enjoy Hitler's paintings, or be astonished by Kaczynski's accurate portrayal of technology's effects on the future, and look at those separately from the atrocities these men committed. In no way am I justifying their atrocities, far from it, but I am saying I would like to go to a gallery with Hitler's paintings.

But to make a point, this is not always the case. For instance, I find Charles Manson an incredibly fascinating person, but, to be frank, his music sucks. And to bring Hitler back into the discussion, Mein Kampf was an extraordinarily boring book. It uses almost no metaphor, it's dry, and as a work of literature overall poorly written. Hitler should have stuck with painting or architecture. And even the Unabomber's Manifesto is disagreeable at times. Clearly Kacynski had some animosity toward Harvard professors (can't blame him). His disagreements against political correctness are deserved, but the overall hatred toward liberals, scientists, and activists is quite shocking for someone who went to Harvard.

A painting by Adolf Hitler (yeah, I know... it's really good):