Why are people so compelled to argue with Tolkien in these comments? Do they believe he'll appear and try to defend his opinion? Fascinating individuals
Man, I don't know about that. Does it matter what's in someone's heart if their actions are horrific? Your average klansman thought that they were making the world better every time they lynched a black dude. They sure as fuck didn't think they were being evil, but they were pretty bad.
No one ever thinks that they're the villain in their own story, because why would they? Most people will find any reason they can to justify anything they say and do. Their hearts are as clean and pure as can be, that's why we have to judge people by their actions and their outcomes.
Tolkien knew this. He fought in World War 1. He had witnessed atrocities few of us have ever seen in real life. He wrote so much in response to that. I understand how you could feel this way and often I do too but I think there is so much wisdom in remembering these are also people.
Okay. Sure, they're people. They're also terrible, both for their actions and for not believing that their actions are terrible. What value do we get out of that acknowledgement?
WW2. You go up to a jewish guy in a train car and you tell him "Hey, you know the guy driving you to you to the death camp? He's also a person and he's generally a pretty nice guy to those around him."
What value did you just create here? How does that improve the jewish guy's situation?
Life isn't really about what lives in our heads man. While motivations can be a factor, ultimately what matters is what people do and the outcomes of those actions.
I agree with this. I used to be an idealist, but now try to be more realistic. My personal axiom is "Intentions don't matter, results do." because so many people who "love" me have screwed me over with good intentions when people who didn't care one bit have helped more than they ever could.
If your actions and words suck it doesn't matter how good your heart is. The effect in the world is the same as that of someone with a bad heart doing bad actions
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Like, okay, I'm going to present a scenario here:
What value did you just create here? How does that improve the jewish guy's situation?