Transcript for:
Perception of Good and Evil

Do you remember the movie in Glorious Bastards? I never watched it. Oh, it's one of the greatest films ever made. I mean, I cannot recommend it enough. Kristoff Vaultz, who plays the Nazi, plays the main Nazi, it put him on the map. He was this obscure Austrian actor and then this movie made him an international star. I think he won an Oscar for it actually. He's brilliant in it. He's chillingly brilliant. How good he is in this in this Nazi role, right? And he's relaxed and he's got a sense of humor. He doesn't play this caricature of evil, you know, that's one of the reasons he's so chilling. He's so good at it. So, he was on a talk show when the movie when he was promoting the movie and the host asks him, "What did you have to do as an actor to play evil so effectively?" And he's you literally look he's got this look of total confusion on his face. He doesn't understand the question. He goes, "What?" And the host says again, "You were so good. What did you have to source yourself from to play evil? You were so scary." And he looks at the host and he goes, "He wasn't evil." And this is why he was so good at his role because what he understood is no one thinks they're evil. Everyone thinks they're on the side of good. Everyone thinks they're on the side of good. We look at our political discourse these days, it's freaking hilarious. Everybody's accusing each other of being evil and bad. But both sides, if you talk to them, actually think that they're trying to do good. Both sides are on the side of good. And if you just remember that, that people think they're on the side of good. Now, they may be misdirected, that all of those things are still true, but everybody thinks they're on the side of good. If you just start with that basic knowledge, how we interact is very different. Where we no longer seek to criticize because you're evil. That's my judgment. But I seek to understand where you're sourcing that good from. And curiosity is a great way to interact with human beings with whom we disagree.