Arnold Schwarzenegger is well aware of the current state of the world, and he hopes those responsible for creating so much chaos and encouraging so much hate will take a moment to hear what he has to say.
“Nobody who has chosen the easy path of hate has gotten to the end of the road and said, ‘What a life.’ No. They die as miserably as they lived,” he said in a 12-minute long video. “No matter how far you’ve gone, I want you to know you still have a chance to choose a life of strength. You have to fight the war against yourself.’”
In a lengthy video shared by ATTN, the former actor, bodybuilder, and California governor discussed how a recent visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland was “one of the darkest moments of my life.”
Visiting a place where such horrific atrocities took place led him to reflect upon the recent rise in hate, specifically antisemitism.
‘I don’t want to preach to the choir here.’
Rather than share his message against hate with like-minded people, Schwarzenegger said he was interested in reaching those who “already stumbled into the wrong direction, into the wrong path.”
“I want to talk to you if you’ve heard some conspiracies about Jewish people or people of any race, gender or orientation and thought, ‘That makes sense to me,’” he said. “I want to talk to you if you’ve found yourself thinking anyone is inferior or out to get you because of their religion or the color of their skin or their gender.”
“I don’t know the road that has brought you here, but I’ve seen enough people throw away their futures for hateful beliefs, so I want to speak to you before you find your regrets at the end of that path.”
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Schwarzenegger spoke about his father, Gustav, who served as a member of the Nazi party and took part in the siege of Leningrad in World War II, was riddled with guilt for falling for the “horrible, loser ideology.”
He said he witnessed these “broken men” as he grew up in Austria after the war.
“Their bodies were riddled with injuries and shrapnel from the eve of war, and their hearts and their minds were equally riddled with guilt.”
“In the end, it didn’t really matter why they joined [the Nazi Party]. They were all broken in the same way. That’s the bottom line here.”
Watch Arnold Schwarzenegger’s entire message in the video below.
“Hate burns fast and bright. It might make you feel empowered for a while, but it eventually consumes whatever vessel it fuels. It breaks you,” Schwarzenegger said. “…There has never been a successful movement based on hate. … I don’t want you to be a loser.”
Not all hope is lost.
Even if no one else believes it, Schwarzenegger believes there’s still time for those who have chosen the wrong path to turn around.
“Choose strength. Choose life. Conquer your mind.”
Sadly hate and discrimination has been a part of our society since the beginning, and it only seems to be getting worse.
Please share this story to spread Arnold Schwarzenegger’s message.
