By 1923, Germany was bankrupt and a sinister political movement was well on the way to seizing power in Europe.
This hardly sounds like an argument in favour of adversity, but the crucial point is that the Nazis – in common with all totalitarian movements - pursued a strategy of imposing order on the chaos of the time, and of imposing consent where there was dissent.
"In southern Afghanistan, there was a law and order crisis. There was rampant warlordism, and the Taliban came in as a cleansing force to establish law and order and wipe out the warlords and impose Islam, which they did. And they were quite popular doing it, initially."
The Taliban's efforts were initially embraced by the war-ravaged Afghans. But soon their promise to end the chaos of war and warlords resulted in the imposition of a strict interpretation of Islamic law.