Could you assassinate the child National Socialist German Workers Party leader?

You know, Hitler Okay let's just say and accept at face value that you somehow went back in time to the year 1896 and you somehow run into a 7 year old Hitler Knowing who he is and knowing you could do it cleanly and safely, could you assassinate him knowing what he would become and do? Or do you think you wouldn't be able to go through with killing a child, who quite possibly at that point in his life hasn't had a single thought of malice or done anything wrong?

Sure why not..

You know, Hitler Okay let's just say and accept at face value that you somehow went back in time to the year 1896 and you somehow run into a 7 year old Hitler Knowing who he is and knowing you could do it cleanly and safely, could you assassinate him knowing what he would become and do? Or do you think you wouldn't be able to go through with killing a child, who quite possibly at that point in his life hasn't had a single thought of malice or done anything wrong?

_BlueDuck_

If I could go back in time, I'd probably just go back to 1933 and shoot Hitler there.

No, I would kidnap him and take him to some other portion of the globe and leave him there. That should be sufficient.

Don't **** with time is my policy. Who knows...someone worse might have replaced him.

No, I would kidnap him and take him to some other portion of the globe. That should be sufficient. raven_squad

Why would I kill the greatest man that ever lived? Heil.Dystopian-X

Um, aren't we forgetting someone?

That stache alone makes him the greatest man who ever lived.

The plot of C&C Red Alert comes to mind...

As much as I'd want to remove him, I would not want to tamper with history.

Altering the course of modern history just doesn't quite sit well with me. Stepping on a butterfly while in the past, etc.

[QUOTE="Dystopian-X"]Why would I kill the greatest man that ever lived? Heil.SgtKevali

Um, aren't we forgetting someone?

That stache alone makes him the greatest man who ever lived.

Sry Stalin but you got nothing on me.

I don't know how to answer a question like this, because it is so paradoxical. As time travel to the past is 101% impossible and will never even be slightly possible. However to be fair to the thread, yes, i would shoot him.

Sry Stalin but you got nothing on me.

Dystopian-X

History should not be tampered with.

Sry Stalin but you got nothing on me.

Dystopian-X

I judge a man by his mustache. Adolf is clearly inferior.

He did have redeeming traits xaos

Well fine. To be fair Stalin was a prettty funny guy.

[QUOTE="raven_squad"]No, I would kidnap him and take him to some other portion of the globe. That should be sufficient. xaos

I don't know how to answer a question like this, because it is so paradoxical. As time travel to the past is 101% impossible and will never even be slightly possible. However to be fair to the thread, yes, i would shoot him.

FrostyPhantasm

Well, this thread was supposed to be more of a moral question of could you do something very heinous if you were certain it would do something great for the world, rather a discussion on the paradoxes of time travel and medling with history :P

Or I suppose it could be tackled as a question of the nature of time. For example, Hitler is an evil person, so does his younger self also count as evil even though he has yet to become evil? Snnnnap.

[QUOTE="xaos"][QUOTE="raven_squad"]No, I would kidnap him and take him to some other portion of the globe. That should be sufficient. raven_squad

Honestly, I think the circumstances that led up to the Holocaust were much more important than Hitler himself.

No. If Hitler didn't become the leader of Nazis, someone else would, and if by any chance the Nazi's won UN wouldn't be formed, South Korea would be a part of North Korea etc. I would just tell him that when he becomes 49 (I think he was 49 when WWII started) years old, he should do everything he can to stop the killings. I would then send him a letter that would arive in February 1938 which would have said :"Remeber what I told you".

If he didn't listen, I would send him another letter that would arrive on 30th April 1945 which would have said :"Haha, I told you so". :P

I don't think its alright to mess with history...

No, because if I did, Gary Gygax, Uhura, Al Gore, and the world's greatest chess playing supercomputer would come after me to right the wrong I had just done and protect the space time continuum.

Okay. New plan. Let's forget all this meddling with the past stuff. Let's say there is a current day 7 year old, that you somehow, with 100% certainty, for whatever reason, knew would go on to do horrible, evil things to the world. Could you kill him/her?

Okay. New plan. Let's forget all this meddling with the past stuff. Let's say there is a current day 7 year old, that you somehow, with 100% certainty, for whatever reason, knew would go on to do horrible, evil things to the world. Could you kill him/her?

_BlueDuck_

No. The whole of history from that point on would be altered and there's no telling what may have happened. The Nazi party may well have still formed and someone else would have been their leader. Maybe that someone ended up more sane than Hitler Maybe that someone turned out to be a brilliant military tactician. Maybe Germany wins the war. Maybe Europe is still under Nazi control to this day. Maybe their control extends beyond Europe. And so on and so forth...

You know, Hitler Okay let's just say and accept at face value that you somehow went back in time to the year 1896 and you somehow run into a 7 year old Hitler Knowing who he is and knowing you could do it cleanly and safely, could you assassinate him knowing what he would become and do? Or do you think you wouldn't be able to go through with killing a child, who quite possibly at that point in his life hasn't had a single thought of malice or done anything wrong?

_BlueDuck_

Does it have to be assasination? How about simple kidnapping. Take him to South America and raise him to be a tribal shaman.

Nah, it's not anyones place to mess with the time line, even if it could benefit people. Besides, you never know how things will change, the Soviet Union could conquer the world in a timeline without Hitler.

Altering history usually proves to be a bad thing in video games, movies and books, so I'm going to say no on this one. I'd probably kill small Hitler and go back to my time only to realize the earth was now ruled by apes, and the only song on the radio is rocklobster by the B52's. Its a good song to hear every once in a while, but try listening to it over the human control loud speakers 23 hours of the day except for the monkey overlords daily speech?

It's a bad idea to change history. especially if it affects so many people, for like it or not, Hitler has been the most influential human being in history. However, on second thought, there would be no isreal because the Jewish people wouldn't want a homeland so badly, and then the Muslims world woudn't hate America, and then there would be no 9/11, and then we wouldn't be in Iraq or Afghanistan! Kinda blows your mind, dosn't it?

That would probably cause a singularity or something equally disastrous.

Anyway, how do I know that someone else wouldn't have taken his place? Maybe someone who wasn't a blasted idiot strategically, and could have actually done a better job of f-ing up Europe than Hitler did?

Wouldn't want to mess with history. wstfld

Exactly this...Paradox applies.

No, I'd just help him get into art school.

EDIT: On a more serious note, in my opinion Hitler gets too much credit (or too much blame - however you want to look at it) for what he did in terms of his racial policies. Anti-semitism was around in Europe long before even Hitler's great-great grandparents were conceived, and it had been institutionalized by the state and by the church, and promoted by a plethora of political and religious leaders. Hitler's policies was a product of centuries of anti-semitism in Europe. You could kill a thousand Hitlers, but that alone would never change the culture that surrounded him, and chances are someone else would have tried to implement a final solution.

This brings up an interesting new household phrase, "all I need to know I learned from Red Alert." Don't kill Hitler The Russians will attack instead, with laser bears and smiley zepplins.

No, I'd just help him get into art school.

EDIT: On a more serious note, in my opinion Hitler gets too much credit (or too much blame - however you want to look at it) for what he did in terms of his racial policies. Anti-semitism was around in Europe long before even Hitler's great-great grandparents were conceived, and it had been institutionalized by the state and by the church, and promoted by a plethora of political and religious leaders. Hitler's policies was a product of centuries of anti-semitism in Europe. You could kill a thousand Hitlers, but that alone would never change the culture that surrounded him, and chances are someone else would have tried to implement a final solution.

-Sun_Tzu-

Excellent post...