What if? It’s a question that is at the core of humanity. To be human is to wonder “what if?” It can take many forms.
It may stem from regret, wondering what could have happened had we made different choices.
It can come from contemplation of what still lies ahead, wondering what will happen in the future.
Or it could come from a bizarre (but thought-provoking), completely hypothetical question posed by the “New York Times Magazine”:
We asked @nytmag readers: If you could go back and kill Hitler as a baby, would you do it? (What's your response?) pic.twitter.com/daatm12NZC
— NYT Magazine (@NYTmag) October 23, 2015
The Internet can be a dark and scary place it’s true, but from a psychological perspective, this is one of the more fascinating discussions of late. (It definitely beats the pants off the dress conundrum.)
So, could you?
I’ll spare you the responsibility of answering that question (it’s a heavy one), and jump to the real question here: Should you?
Short answer: No.
Why? Setting the moral implications of slaughtering an infant aside for a moment, let’s get to the logic/history of the situation.
First, as any time traveler will tell you, altering history in any way can have major ramifications. Think about the number of seemingly small decisions you make in a given day. Think about the number of alternative decisions you could have made. It’s a lot of factors. Now ramp that up to a global scale. There were more than 2 billion people on the planet making a lot of small decisions resulting in a lot of particular outcomes, creating what we now refer to as history. Could taking out Hitler mean avoiding WWII? It’s possible, but there are way too many contributing factors to calculate that desired outcome with absolute certainty. You could just as easily create an even worse situation. Time travel’s a heavy responsibility, folks. Bad things can happen.
On to history: What Hitler and the Nazi Party were able to accomplish was the result of the political climate in that part of the world at that point in history. Hitler did not act alone. Yes, he was an evil man, but remove him from the situation and the situation still exists, and we’re back at you could be creating a far worse history than the one we already have (and that’s saying something).
A more productive use of your time travel powers would be getting ahead, perhaps with a few helpful additions to the Treaty of Versailles…or…
Why is it always "kill the baby Hitler" and not "find him as a young man, tell him his art is really good, he should stick with it"
— Matthew S. Burns (@mrwasteland) October 23, 2015
Forbes: Why It’s Impossible To Go Back In Time And Kill Baby Hitler
