Russell Crowe on Playing Göring, Incremental Evil and the Grip of Gambling
Russell Crowe joins Joe Rogan to talk about playing Hermann Göring in Nuremberg, how societies slide gradually into atrocity, and his dislike of normalized sports betting. Partial coverage: this note covers the opening portion of the roughly 2h58m episode; the views are the speakers' own.
Executive Summary (TL;DR)
Russell Crowe discusses with Joe Rogan how rational people can make a series of decisions that lead somewhere horrific, how small incremental changes are harder to notice than giant jumps, and the human capacity to dehumanize others. They then move to gambling, which Crowe says grips people like a drug, his view that Australia normalized betting, and his own past tips on UFC fights. Partial-coverage note: this summary draws on the opening portion of a 2h58m episode. Historical interpretations and opinions about gambling are the speakers' own and not verified here. Nothing here is advice.
Key Takeaways
How rational men reach horror
The discussion asks how people who believe they are rational end up making a chain of decisions that pushes things somewhere unbelievably horrific.