You could've been hitler

Hello Praise,

I hope you read this before going to church, if you go to church. If you don't, I hope you read this with a heart of reflection.

I have no answers today, just questions.

"The most harm of all is done when power is in the hands of people who are absolutely persuaded of the purity of their instincts—and the purity of their intentions"

Milton Friedman

That's a peek into the minds of Hitler, Charlemagne, Usman Dan Fodio and Lord Lugard, to mention a few. Al Qaeda, ISIS almost [kind of] makes sense now.

To the world [to you], they are wrong. To them, they are right—deeply rooted in their hearts. Like your parents, they think the rest do not see what they see. They wish you had the "foresight" they have.

Like you, after consuming some new knowledge that changes your worldview on anything/everything, they can't relate anymore—everyone else is now alien.

"I have more experience. It works this way", you respond to them [your clients]—how you wish they could see it like you did. You meant no harm, you honestly didn't.

At one point or another, you'd done something purely out of true intentions, known only to your worldview—no one else's—and it's either turned out good, like you said it would, or it wreaked havoc or is still wreaking havoc.

The Light Bulb, The AirPlane, World War 2, all "holy" wars, Trump's Wall, China's Communism, The British Colonies—every one of these events/innovations and more came from an intention [idea] that the pioneers firmly believed in as the right thing to do.

You do it too, but I'm not going to point fingers.

Everything starts from an idea—an intention, if you will. Do you now wonder, like me, "how do I know if my idea is right?" "Is my moral compass a worthy determining factor?"

"When you have an idea, run with it, don't listen to the critics", they'll tell you. Yet, when Hitler killed millions of Jews, those who called him out as wicked, he considered them critics.

How do you know if your critics are right—and you're wrong?

Maybe your friends? Sure, they know well enough, but "be friends with people who share similar values with you" is the mantra. It means that 3 out of 5 times, your friends probably think like you.

"Take feedback", but if you spend all your time listening to feedback, how would you get the time to actually do stuff?

What do you do? Because frankly, I don't know.

Yet this Bible verse comes to mind—

"...the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happens to them all."

Want to know what I think?

I am lucky to be nice. I should be grateful even, because based on today's letter, everyone could've been Hitler.

I think if your idea, whatever it is, can harm any human that it comes in contact with—it is probably a bad idea.

Even so, I still think that I am lucky—we are lucky to be good.

Arigato!

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