Bad Guys Win, Too

Here is a fact of life that none of us like to admit: sometimes bad guys win and good guys lose. There are times when those who are virtuous, honest and correct in their perspective on things do not get that first-place prize. They run second to those who lie, manipulate and who are underhanded in how they communicate. This is a disturbing piece of reality that runs counter to all that most of us like to believe. It is a chunk of that unpleasant truism: life is not always fair. Thus, for those falling under the category of "good,"this is why it is so important that they never take their virtue for granted or assume that victory will always fall in their lap.


Eighty years ago in 1936, the Olympics were held in Berlin, Germany. As the capital of that country, this city was literally at the heart of the Nazi movement. Hitler was firmly in power along with his top underlings, including people like Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Goring. At  that time, Hitler was not yet ready to reveal his true intentions of exterminating Jews and dominating the world even though they were already in the beginning stages of systematically engineering the execution of innocent men and women and strengthening their military. The Olympics represented a sizeable challenge for Hitler as the spotlight of the world was very much boing to be on him and his country. The last thing he anted was to show his true colors.


Under the leadership of Goebbels, Hitler's chief of propaganda, the country successfully initiated a massive cover-up which included forcing Germans to behave cordially to their nation's visitors and not give any hint of their growing fear of Hitler, removing bodies from various nearby rivers, and relocating others to detention centers situated outside the borders of Berlin. As described by author Daniel James Brown, Berlin, in essence, was turned into a giant movie lot. What the world's athletes and international press saw, then, was not real. The success of this fakery was a coup for Goebbels. The bad guys won. Though this so-called "victory" of the Nazi leaders proved to be short-lived, what happened in Berlin in 1936 continues to serve as a reminder that effective communication does not solely reside in the heart and mind of "good guys."