Dinner with the World’s Most Hated Man by Nicholas

Dinner with the World’s Most Hated Man by Nicholas - February 2016 Scholarship Essay

Before I can answer the question, I have to go on a bit of a tangent.

The motive of every action that every person has ever taken can be summarized in one sentence: “I thought it was the best option at the time.” Regardless of the fact that they might not have thought about their other options particularly hard, or that they might not have wanted to do what they did, or that they later came to regret their decision, they still chose that option over every other, because, at the time, it seemed the best.

This is clear to see in simple actions with simple motives. For example, if a person was asked why they ate an apple, they might say “I like apples” or “I was hungry.” No other person or outside force influenced their decision; it was only their hunger or preference that motivated them.

Not every scenario is this simple, though. People’s actions are often influenced by other people, and they may say that they did what they did because “I was just following orders,” “it had to be done”, “I had no other option”, etc. Of course, in all these situations, the person could have taken another action, and they might have even wanted to, but in the end they judged that the consequences (being fired, punished, etc.) of taking another action would be worse than the consequences of following their expectations/orders. In other words, “choosing the best option” also means “choosing the least bad option.”

The motive of “I thought it was best” can be hard to see in situations where it seems a person is simply being evil. For example, when a parent neglects their child, or when a child bullies their classmates. Although a person’s motives for doing these things may be selfish, they’re still motives.

Similarly, it can be hard to see any motive in people who act self-destructively. For example, those who avoid social contact or refuse to work. Again, their motives (fear, apathy, or whatever else) may not be “good”, but they’re still motives.

I could continue listing scenarios and motives like this, but at this time I feel that it’s best to wrap this up and answer the question I was asked.

To summarize, no matter what a person’s motives are: selfish or selfless, internal or external, misguided or well-informed, every decision they ever make is the decision that they feel is best at the time.

With this idea in mind, I would have dinner with Adolf Hitler: high-school dropout, failed painter, World War I veteran, the subject of so many high-school essays – and possibly the most hated man in the world.

His actions are often considered to be the epitome of evil, and entire countries once united in opposition to him, but he firmly believed until the day he died that he was doing the right thing. Where we saw the rise of a tyrannical dictator, he saw the unification of his country and movement towards a new golden age, and where we saw the slaughter of countless innocent people, he saw the purification of mankind.

Understanding how he came to believe in what he believed in would reveal so much about the human mind. Was he a product of racist pseudoscience and “stab-in-the-back” propaganda? Or was it personal experiences that made him anti-Semitic? Did he forget the Jewish friends he once had? Was he truly indifferent to the suffering of the people in concentration camps, or was he kept ignorant to the true conditions? Assuming he had lived through the war and was forced to face his actions, would he regret what he’d done?

Knowing the answers to these questions would completely change how we deal with people we disagree with. If people were made to truly understand Hitler, rather than see him just as history’s biggest villain, perhaps we could also learn how to deal with other “bad guys”, such as ISIS and Kim Jong-un.

Perhaps we would make a real effort to understand their motives for action and address them somehow.

Perhaps we would learn to at least try to solve problems without violence.