- In some parts of India, there is a practice of euthanasia followed by people without even knowing it. When an old person is very sick; all the extended family and relatives gather around the bed, and everyone pours a spoon of ganga-jal in the dying man's mouth when he is not conscious. This then goes into his wind-pipe and blocks the flow of air and leads to death. The intentions were good; consequences disastrous.
- Albert Einstein wrote a letter to USA explaining the research in atomic physics being done by Germany. It was a well-intentioned letter; but this prompted a similar research by US and consequent bombing of Japan in another "well-intentioned" attempt to end war.
- In Mahabharata, Dhrithrasthra is the blind king and father of the two warring states. His failure to decide his own heir, ambivalence between what's right and what's helpful for his son, and turning a blind eye(pun) towards the disrobing of Draupadi eventually lead to the great battle of Mahabharata. This battle resulted in the killing of all his sons.
I tried to make these examples severe trying to portray the well-intentioned fools as guilty. History hasn't always done so. Why? Because human society has a culture of forgiving mistakes. That is why we are humans. We are often taught that its ok if we make mistakes because without making mistakes we will never learn.
But what if, we were taught its ok to make mistakes as long as our intentions are right. Will we ever learn. So, if we never learn from our mistakes and continue to condone ourselves by thinking ourselves as well-intentioned, road to hell will always be paved with good intentions.
You seem to have given the Mahabharath as history. Well it's not. It is a myth. It is about as true as Zeus, Votan or Thor.
ReplyDeleteOn a related note I think religion is one of those things that gives license to so-called people with "good intentions" to be exonerated from his/her malicious deeds.
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ReplyDeleteReligion giving poetic license of creativity ... interesting.
ReplyDeleteOh wait, did you just call Einstein a fool? :O
ReplyDeleteNot a fool but a "well intentioned" fool :P
ReplyDeleteOkay, sorry for being so sparse in my previous comment. Do you expect Einstein to have thought about the future and refrain from telling the US about the research? And he's now a (well-intentioned) fool in your view because he failed to correctly predict the future? I think blaming Einstein for the bombing is unjust.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that Einstein could envision the future and yes he had the perfectly good intentions; but he did make a mistake. The lesson to learn is:
ReplyDeleteIn things like war where everything is fair, you should not blindly place all your faith in one side and expect that side to take the correct decision. In this case, a better approach could have been to write an open letter to the public. This would have put some pressure on both camps to think before they use such lethal weapon...
One thing common in all these examples is :
ReplyDeleteIf things start with good intentions then it will finish on the good note automatically or vice-versa.