While we are talking about nazis...?

Question

... let's talk about Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer said, "If evil appears in the form of light, benefit and renewal, if it confirms with historical necessity and social justice then this, if it is understood straightforwardly, is a clear proof of it's abysmal wickedness". Martha Goebbels described the national socialtist idea as "everything I've ever known to be good, beautiful and true". Can the human mind be deceived about right and wrong, foul and fair? If so, how come?

Magda, was her name, you're right. I'm just trying to find out what's the source of confusion about right and wrong, how to be sure about right and wrong and how to avoid being deceived.

And I'm actually fed up with all these examples about Hitler, wether or not he was a Christian and blah, blah...

I hope we can all agree that he was a bad man and leave it at that.

Answer 1

It is a kind of self-deception. They have blinded their true spiritual senses and are clinging to false hopes. The standard of good and evil, of justice and injustice, of right and wrong are set in the Holy Scriptures. Killing one's fellow man, wars of aggression and conquest, murder of millions. These are all forbidden in the Books of God.

Baha'u'llah prophesied that such ideologies would arise, which would turn away from the verses of God. The followers thereof mistake hellfire for light, the burning of selfish passion for truth, the wicked fire of hatred for justice.

"The verses of God have been revealed, and yet they have turned away from them. His proof hath been manifested, and yet they are unaware of it. And when they behold the face of the All-Merciful, their own faces are saddened, while they are disporting themselves. They hasten forward to Hell Fire, and mistake it for light. Far from God be what they fondly imagine!" (Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 41)

Answer 2

Well, first one must put into context the reasons why Hitler and the Nazi's came to power. Germany was almost totally destroyed in WW I and the Allies had placed severe sanctions on Germany. All during the 1920's the German economy was in ruins. People can be deceived when their personal situation is desperate and they will believe those that promise hope and glory. Bonhoeffer was right in his statement. Light, benefit and renewal was exactly what Hitler's message was.

But, again, there were many who did not believe Hitler was right either, but by that time speaking up would get you sent to a concentration camp and be put to death.

The human condition is totally governed by one's environment.

Answer 3

Of course we can. We are far more susceptible than we'd like to think when mass media and a mass ideology is presented. It becomes a social pressure that can be very powerful to an individual and their thoughts. When everyone around you is convinced that propaganda is true it becomes a sort of opium for the masses. The Goebbels quote simply means she can't sift her self interest out of the statement. It is a scary thought but there are so many examples of it around us today. We are just more fragile than we think.

Answer 4

Yes most definitely. We can all be decieved about right and wrong it is just in our nature as humans to believe what we want to believe and everyone's definition of right and wrong changes. How else would people like Hitler, Stalin, Saddam, osma, get the support and following that they have and had. All the people that I have named were all noted for the Charisma they had, so perhaps this has something to do with it also?

Answer 5

The human mind is in my opinion, infinite. There are limitations on our own concept of our mind and we tend to conform our beliefs to those things we can see concretely or are told are true by those in authority. The conscious human mind has constructed it's own boundaries within which it relates to the world around it. If a concept which is abhorrent exists outside of our scope of consciousness and is veiled by acceptable explanations that are observable and related to us as equally acceptable by those who have authority, then we see it in a positive light. In this view, the human brain, in it's conscious state, can be deceived.

Answer 6

...The mind is easily deceived, especially when somebody like Hitler (or just political leaders in general) promises hurting or suffering people everything (like power and a wonderful life), and people are focused on themselves and their lives, and become less aware of and desensitized the world around them.
...Ms. Goebbels must have been in "lala land", or else really out of touch with what the Nazis were doing.
...We humans, as described in Scripture, are like straying sheep. We find this in Isaiah 53:6:
..."All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way; but the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."
...Jesus saves us, and as we become more like Him, we will be less apt to fall into man's wicked schemes.
...I urge all to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and be saved. (Acts 16:31)
...Whosoever will, may come.

Answer 7

Unfortunately, most of the humans on this planet are afraid to face the cold, hard reality of our being alone... purposeless... and worthless. Most of them fall into the path of escapism so deeply they mix it up with reality.... They all engage in the process of wishful ________ .... (wishful thinking without the thinking). Despite all that goes on around them, without them, they seem to think the Universe effectively revolves around them, gives a damn about them, that where they are going is the best place and all else is wrong.

If you think I'm referring to the christians, you would be part right....

... But what I'm really referring to are the people who think the world is a better place because Hitler did NOT win World War II .....

>_~

Answer 8

I like Al Pacino's character as Satan in the "Devil's Advocate" when he says to Keanu Reeves, " You sharpen the human intellect until it can split atoms with its desires, you build egos the size of cathedrals until everyone becomes an aspiring emperor, becomes his own god..." The source of all confusion is adherence to the relativistic and humanistic doctrine of "me first".

Answer 9

Do you mean specifically in the case of Germany or in general. Specifically, Germany had rampaging armies wash back and forth across it massacring civilians for 2000 years straight. After WWI and the humilitation afterwards they were willing to accept anything that allowed them to feel better about their position as a nation.
In general - people are stupid, easily guided cows who simply don't want to think for themselves out of laziness.

Answer 10

Individual freedom is the dream of our age. It's what our leaders promise to give us, it defines how we think of ourselves and, repeatedly, we have gone to war to impose freedom around the world. But if you step back and look at what freedom actually means for us today, it's a strange and limited kind of freedom.

Politicians promised to liberate us from the old dead hand of bureaucracy, but they have created an evermore controlling system of social management, driven by targets and numbers. Governments committed to freedom of choice have presided over a rise in inequality and a dramatic collapse in social mobility. And abroad, in Iraq and Afghanistan, the attempt to enforce freedom has led to bloody mayhem and the rise of an authoritarian anti-democratic Islamism. This, in turn, has helped inspire terrorist attacks in Britain. In response, the Government has dismantled long-standing laws designed to protect our freedom.
The origins of our contemporary, narrow idea of freedom.
shows how a simplistic model of human beings as self-seeking, almost robotic, creatures led to today's idea of freedom. This model was derived from ideas and techniques developed by nuclear strategists during the Cold War to control the behaviour of the Soviet enemy.

Mathematicians such as John Nash developed paranoid game theories whose equations required people to be seen as selfish and isolated creatures, constantly monitoring each other suspiciously – always intent on their own advantage.

This model was then developed by genetic biologists, anthropologists, radical psychiatrists and free market economists, and has come to dominate both political thinking since the Seventies and the way people think about themselves as human beings.

However, within this simplistic idea lay the seeds of new forms of control. And what people have forgotten is that there are other ideas of freedom. We are, in a trap of our own making that controls us, deprives us of meaning and causes death and chaos abroad.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo/noise/?id=trap