The “Impossible reading” discussed a lot about intentions. “The smallest of actions is always better than the noblest of intentions,” (Robin S. Sharma). Intent and action can stand in opposition or in fellowship depending on the way we play out our thoughts. It beckons the question of if we should judge on one’s intent or one’s actions? It has always been impressed upon me that “actions speak louder than words”. When judgement comes into play, it is not our intentions that are decided on but what we do (our actions).
This reminds me off the common plea that was used during the trials of german soldiers who partcipated in the holocaust. They claimed that they were following actions and never had evil intentions. Eichman was a key contributor in what the Nazi’s called the “Final Solution”. The “Final Solution” was a plan to murder all the Jewish, catholics, disabled and other people considered being unworthy in the eyes of Adolf Hitler. They tasked Eichman in the overseeing of deporting the Jews to ghettos and killing centers in the German-occupied East. “Eichmann, testifying from behind a glass booth to protect him from assassination, asserted that he had not dictated policy, but only carried it out—that he was “merely a little cog in the machinery” of destruction” (Holocaust Museum). The little Cog Eichman: a cog that transported, a cog that imprisoned, and a cog that killed. However, Eichman plead not guilty under the common plea of the Nazi that he was following orders. Eichman was hanged for his actions, not the innocent intent that he claimed.
“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” Albus Dumbledore