Rodomontade

Free will – to choose good or evil

As a writer, you write about the good things of beings (be they humans or otherwise), but there is also the bad, and the evil, that steers the plot of the story. I have watched documentaries about the history of the rise of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust for this reason, to research that dark aspect in the psyche of man that drives man to commit unspeakable crimes, or is there some abstract outside force that compels the inhumanity of man against man? Recently I watched the documentary of the Goebbels-Experiment. For me it becomes disturbingly clear, from one maddened oratory to the next, from images of deliriously cheering crowds to the images of burning synagogues. Not only in Nazi Germany but in China as well during the Cultural Revolution. The people beaten to death in high school basements, all to follow Mao Tze Tong’s Thoughts and cleanse society of anti-revolutionary elements.
The people had allowed it to happen; they had endorsed the burning and the killing. They had cheered on the evil in their leaders.
From direct personal experience, from one being that we are providing a roof over its head freely in Canada, from the series of drunken rants, the racist outbursts against immigrants, comes this dark picture. What if there should appear an orator like Goebbels dispensing inflammatory speeches blaming the ills of society on ethnic minorities. Will the people protest, or will the people cheer him on and do his evil bidding of ethnic cleansing?