Exactly. Hitler built up Germany (well, before he smashed it, but there's always scapegoats for that) and made the Autobahn we Germans still love so dearly, and

Exactly. Hitler built up Germany (well, before he smashed it, but there's always scapegoats for that) and made the Autobahn we Germans still love so dearly, and there's people still arguing with a straight face Hitler was a great man. Industry is overrated - it's just food, peace and shelter that aren't. Human progress is inevitable, speeding it up while fortifying ruling classes does not impress me, ever. edit: to be fair, however: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong#Legacy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong#Legacy Mobo Gao in his 2008 book The Battle for China's Past: Mao and the Cultural Revolution, credits Mao for raising the average life expectancy from 35 in 1949 to 63 by 1975, bringing "unity and stability to a country that had been plagued by civil wars and foreign invasions" Still, bleh. My point was that he might as well have done ONLY evil; with the kind of attitude displayed in the essay he wrote as student (it's not like he lived the rest of his live differently) it would have taken a bullet to stop him. Reflection did not enter into it. That's my point.