Will Smith Was Right

Will Smith is justifiably angry over the reaction to his comment:

"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.'"

I don't get the outrage. Grow up and face the uncomfortable truth: Will Smith is right. Those who do evil don't have horns, most of them think they are doing the right thing. And yes, I think that George Bush and Dick Cheney really do think they are doing good, even if they are blind to the facts that by their use of aggression and torture, they have destroyed America's standing in the world and that by their rank politicalization of the justice system, they have simultaneously decimated the respect for the rule of law in this country.

The same can be ascribed to people on the other side of the political spectrum. Sarah Brady and the folks at the Violence Policy Center no doubt think that it would be a very good thing to completely disarm the American people; they probably believe that there is no way that America would fall to a tyrannical regime.

Those on the left and on the right who would control what we consume, what we read, what we watch, what we do for recreation or whom we sleep with certainly must feel that they are on the side of the angels. Those who use the power of the state to turf people out of their homes so a developer can build an office/retail project or who want to run a super-highway through a town think they have the greater good in mind. No doubt the people in Los Angeles who destroyed rivers and towns so so the city could have their water, as well as those who did the same in New York and Massachusetts, thought they were doing the right thing. That it probably took two generations for the families whose homes and farms were drowned to recover economically wasn't a concern of theirs.

People who think they are serving the "greater good" by inflicting their visions on others may be right in their belief. They may also be horribly wrong and they may cross the line into evil.

Evil wears a nice suit, is well-scrubbed, often well-spoken and is earnest in its belief that it is doing the right thing. The Munchkin Wrangler discussed this awhile back.

Will Smith was right.