You may or may not have heard of the recent comments Will Smith made about Adolf Hitler in an interview with The Daily Record in the U.K., in which he said, “Even Hitler didn’t wake up going, ‘let me do the most evil thing I can do today. I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was ‘good’. Stuff like that just needs reprogramming.1”
You may or may not have also heard that the Jewish Defense League, now known on this blog as the Moron’s League for Bullshit, Whiny-Ass Objectors, was all up in arms about the comment, claiming Will Smith said “Hitler was basically a good person,” and that his comments were “ignorant, detestable, and offensive, and spit in the face of every person who was murdered by the Nazis.2”
Now, no doubt the Nazis were a bad bunch of assholes, but please, where in that quote by Smith above did it say anything that even comes close to “Hitler was basically a good person?” Because I must have missed that part. Let’s be realistic here, as much suffering as he caused, Adolf Hitler thought he was creating some sort of utopia. Was he nuts? Sure. Was he responsible for one of the biggest atrocities in history? Absolutely. But none of that means Hitler himself didn’t think he was doing good; of course he did, why the hell else would he have done what he did? This is a perfect example of a civil rights group that can’t find anything else to complain about.
Its unfortunate too, defending civil rights is a noble cause; unfortunately, most of these organizations end up being run by nut jobs who seem to manufacture issues where none exist as if they have nothing better to do, ultimately diluting any truly positive efforts they make.
So, what does this have to do with success in business you might ask? Interesting you should ask. The extent to which you succeed in business has a direct correlation with the extent to which you can keep your personal feelings and opinions from tainting the truth that is right in front of you.m any emotions and come to a cold, hard, rational conclusion. Then factor in your emotions and decide whether it may be to your benefit to allow them some influence. Granted I think it’s impossible to completely detach emotions from decision-making, nonetheless, seeing the facts for what they are, and not what you want them to be is vital to success in business. I’m not the type to tell anyone to give up, but if you refuse to strive to see the facts in spite of your own feelings, quit now, because unless you want to run an organization that manufactures problems, like the Jewish Defense League, you’ll never succeed.
Some of you still may not see the connection here, so let me clarify. No doubt Jewish civil rights are a strong issue with the Jewish Defense League, likely one that many of its members have strong feelings about, and rightfully so. The problem is that the League allowed an emotional response to cloud the truth and, in doing so, severely damaged the groups credibility.
Now, race and religion are always emotional issues for a lot of people, so I’m sure I’ll get some hate for this, so let me clarify one more time the idiocy behind the Jewish Defense League’s comments.
- Will Smith says, “Even Hitler didn’t wake up going, ‘let me do the most evil thing I can do today. I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was ‘good’. Stuff like that just needs reprogramming.1″
- Jewish Defense League throws a fit and claims that Smith said that “Hitler was basically a good person.”
- My mind explodes trying to understand how saying someone is doing something he or she thinks is good and actually being a good person are the same thing.
You can read the original interview with Smith here
And the Jewish Defense League’s response here
P.S. Fire away.
Sources:
The Daily Record. My Work Ethic Will Make Me A Legend.
Jewish Defense League. Will Smith Thinks Hitler Was Basically Good?
10 responses so far ↓
1 Aaron // Dec 28, 2007 at 1:12 pm
I couldn’t agree with you more. I put a lot of blame on the media for running with the story as well though. They should know better.
2 Choocher // Dec 28, 2007 at 8:29 pm
I’d love to comment, but I have to check with the JDL and make sure my remarks fit PC state-religion guidelines. If I were to question anything organized Jewry tells me, that would mean I was a hater. I love Big Brother.
3 John Crenshaw // Dec 28, 2007 at 10:20 pm
Aaron: yeah, the media is a bit at fault. I actually thought about not writing about this just to keep from giving it any more legitimacy, but after I read the Jewish Defense League’s gibberish I couldn’t help it.
Choocher: Funny stuff. Thanks for stopping by.
4 Gary // Dec 29, 2007 at 1:42 am
The JDL’s knee jerk reaction seems to have come about because the only way they CAN get a reaction is to suddenly scream as loudly as they can about the perceived racism. It is in the JDL’s interests to keep the issue of racism in the media (since that is why they exist), but at least give someone the benefit of the doubt and check what they actually meant before running to the press. They are going to get themselves a bad name if they keep doing this. Exactly what the racists want.
5 Mrs. C // Jan 14, 2008 at 11:58 am
You would think Smith’s comments as reported would be encouraging to the JDL. It means simply that we need to expose our children to other viewpoints, or teach them that killing off an entire race or ethnic group is a “bad thing.” It is VERY IMPORTANT to note that Hitler did not act alone. One nut-job can’t possibly exterminate over 6 million people without some help. Maybe 10 or 20 in a crowded mall, but not 6 MILLION.
Wouldn’t you think the comments would serve to reinforce the idea that we should “never forget” as a society? Or teach our children to at least respect the basic human rights of those with whom we disagree? There will unfortunately always be the unbalanced among us.
6 Blue Gal // Jan 15, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Smith’s mistake was invoking the lightning rod of Hitler. Alan Rickman has said essentially the same thing in interviews without mentioning any Nazis…that “villains” aren’t motivated because they want to do evil, but because they think what they do will yield a good result. It’s an important key to playing a villain well.
7 Mister Guy // Jan 16, 2008 at 9:14 pm
The scary thing is…Hitler was a man…just a self-hating, lonely, frustrated man.
8 John Crenshaw // Jan 28, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Mrs C., I happen to completely agree with Will Smith on this, if, in fact, I understand him correctly, and I think I do.
Everyone thinks what he/she is doing is right…otherwise we wouldn’t do what we do. Now, later we can look back and think how stupid it was, but even someone who commits such atrocities as Hitler, and as you so correctly point out, the entire Nazi regime…even they actually believe what they’re doing is good and moral.
I don’t necessarily agree that “never forgetting” is the key to preventing things like that from happening.
If it’s possible at all, I think the key is to simply understand what Smith understands as evidenced by his comment…instead of counting people like that as lunatics and simply writing them off, you need to understand that they believe they are absolutely correct, and then try to see things through their eyes.
Now before I get flamed to hell here, I know trying to see things through a guy like Hitler’s eyes is a hard pill to swallow, but if you really consider what was going on in that country during that time, and the history of how Hitler came to be in power, things make a little more sense.
The simple fact is, we can all sit here and say Hitler did what he did because he was crazy and not make any attempt at understanding what his thought process was and what influenced him, but then things like that are just going to repeat themselves over and over and we’re just going to continue proclaiming that lunatic after lunatic through the rest of time is just a psycho and that’s that.
Hitler had a rationale. You or I may not agree with it at all, but understanding it is the key to preventing things like his “ultimate solution” from happening again.
9 james // Feb 27, 2008 at 4:01 am
I think will is right – hitler was doing what he thought was best for himself and his country… the fact that it was genocide is another matter altogether…..
10 Money Learning Center // Mar 17, 2008 at 7:39 pm
I’m not a anti- JDL. Making a big fuss about Mr. Will Smith’s opinion. That’s just a lousy. Hey, everyone is entitled to their own opinion right?
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