Are 'Good' Intentions Good Enough? The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions
Intention is not a justification for excusing a wrong-action, as if an action can be magically validated based on the intent we had at the time. Intention is indeed important. We desire and intend to achieve some goal or end.
But is that a right-end, and are the actions we take to achieve it right? Are we justifying the means to an end, or are we considerate in the journey taken?
Intention is not just thought, it's desire, wish, want, and motivation, which is emotion as well. It's thought and emotion in a feedback to process reality and find motivation to direct us towards an action.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Poorly constructed thoughts, emotions, motivations or intents, can be very dangerous.
Thinking we will do "good works" in the world by functioning from a simplified focus on intentions without proper construction of our thoughts to act, will lead us to being misguided and lost. If we don't elevate ourselves to a higher consciousness modality of thought, emotion and action, we are essentially condemning, insulting and offending ourselves through our ignorance. We need to return to thinking things through in our "minds" and "hearts" to properly process our surroundings and act rightly.
The intention needs to be valid to drive and manifest right-action in the world. Thought is the essence. That is where it starts. Where it ends is what matters, and that is our actions. Cause and effect provides a reciprocal feedback that ends with the results, the effect, not our best wishes and wants that drive us to create them. Intentional drives are the starting point that needs to be properly evaluated internally in consciousness. A poorly validated and justified intention can produce wrong results, if not harm for ourselves or others.
Those who put intention of doing 'good' above the actual action of doing good or not, are deluding themselves about how to manifest reality. These types of thinkers conclude that "the intention is what matters" as "their 'heart' was in the 'right' place", and other delusions they use to seek to justify the wrong-action of the people who create evil in this world. I've heard people try to say Hitler had good intentions. Harm done? Well his intentions were in the right place, give him a break :\
They also blindly believe in some oversimplified notion that "thoughts create reality" or "consciousness creates all of existence", and "the 'observer effect' PROVES reality would not exist without consciousness", when that is NOT the case at all! That is the infection of an imaginary belief construct that twists and corrupts they way someone perceives reality.
Even if that's what they think they are doing (an alleged "good") the fact of them being ignorant and unaware of the true causes for repeating actions or a way of life is no reason to accept intention as the "most important" thing, when it's the actual action that matters in the end.
The intention/thought is where it starts. You need to be well equipped in understanding reality to maximize accurately choosing what to do, no matter your good intentions. That is why life is learning, and we are supposed to learn from our mistakes, not continually justify or excuse them.
We judge, offend, insult and condemn ourselves by our very own actions. We are our own worst enemies.
"You start with something pure, something exciting, then come the mistakes, the compromises. We create our own demons."
- Iron Man 3
We have a thought, an intent, and we run with it without understanding what we are doing. Paving the road to hell. The compromises are the sacrifice of truth for that intent. Then we create our own demons, shadow, darkness, negative and suffering, which is often to create immorality and evil into the world.
“Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don’t mean to do harm. But the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it. Because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.”
- T. S. Eliot
Thoughts matter, emotions matter, intentions matter, for they are the foundation to action. But in the end they pale in comparison to the resulting action that produces manifested results in the world (be they good or evil).
Some people like to use "intention" as a cop-out for the manifested results they produced. But the action was already done, their intent fooled them, misled them, because proper understanding of holistic aspects of consciousness were not in hand. They went with the blindly "trust-your-feelings" trap. An idea or choice "felt-good", so it was most desired, without taking the proper time to think, or to develop and learn better thinking skills.
“Life isn’t about where you are going or how fast, it’s about how you get there. It doesn’t really matter what you had in your mind, or your heart, or how much you wanted it, or how good your intentions were, all that really matters is what you do, because what we do is who we are.”
- Space Warriors (2013)
In the end, what we do is what matters, not all the excuses or reasons we did it. That doesn't mean intentions or thoughts don't count, because they do. They are used to head towards the faulty actions, or the proper action. Correcting our thoughts is how we correct our behavior. Be mindful of the journey taken to get to a destination.
Do you think intentions justify and excuse someone from what they did?
Have you even fallen for the "good intentions" excuse?
Did you use it yourself, or have it used on you?
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
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A real-life example. Clooney pushing for more immigrants being allowed into America. But when the immigrants showed up in Lake Como, near his lakeside villa and started to ruin the town and the area around his villa, who was rich enough to bug out and head back to the US.
https://worldpoliticus.com/2017/01/31/refugees-surprise-george-clooney-front-door-home/
Actions speak louder than words for most of the Hollywood elite. They bathe publicly in their good intentions, without regard in most cases to the consequences.
They don't have to worry about the consequence of their idiocy. They are rich enough that the side effects of their policy prognostications will never impact them.
STEEM On!!
p.s. he bought in 2001 for $10 million and is rumored to have been offered $100 million to sell in 2017, so maybe he is just a good capitalist? But that narrative doesn't fit in with my rant, so let's ignore that possibility
Yeah there are foolish intentions everywhere, and then when things go bad people don't want to take responsibility. Running away is easier like you mention lol.
Thank you for making the effort to construct this very well written post krnel. It is unfortunately something that isn't supported by many, the notion that reality is not built on feelings, good intentions or thoughts -- reality is the result of our actions which in and of themselves are the result of the way that we exist internally. If we deny responsibility for our actions and the consequences of those actions - whether they were conscious or not - by believing that it's only our feelings, thoughts and intentions that matter, then we get a physical reality that is reflecting that abdication of responsibility. This is exactly what our current world is showing us, that to focus on feelings and intentions is not enough -- we need to understand the nuances involved with how our feelings influence our actions and how our actions in turn influence the world we exist in. Upvoted and resteemed. Steem on!
Well said! :D Thanks for the support.
For the most part, I think you are right, it is the actions that matter. And keeping in mind that everybody is the protagonist in their own story, surely a lot of harm is being done with an intention that feels as something that is good or at least justified on the inside.
One of the big offenders in the camp of good intentions leading to bad consequences is religion and I think it's high time society stops giving it a pass on that.
But still, I would say that we cannot judge our selves and others solely on the consequences of our actions. Sometimes we act in a certain way that is fully justified based on the evidence and information we have access to at the time of the decision, but the consequences turn out to be negative. For instance, a doctor in an ER room might have to take measures to save a patient's life without full knowledge of their medical history and conditions and their actions might indeed lead to the patients death because of an underlying problem the doctor could not have know about. Should we really judge the doctor for the results of their actions only?
It goes the other way too. We persecute attempted murder because malicious intent is still a problem for society and the fact that your attempt at harmful action did not lead to the negative consequences you intended doesn't let you off the hook. Like if you tried to shoot the neighbor you hate, but your gun malfunctions when you pull the trigger, you have still committed a crime and a punishment is not justified. The same goes for conspiracy to commit murder. While pulling the trigger has an action component, talking about it pretty much 100% intent and it is still a crime and rightfully so.
That's why I think actions and results are more important than intent, but they cannot be the sole metric we judge ourselves and others on. Sometimes it is the thought what indeed counts.
Yes, there is another category of behavior where intentions to help do matter, as that is what they are sought for: to provide help. People can accept that someone could have done nothing, or that they did something to try to help. If they did nothing and someone would have died, then at least trying was better than doing nothing. So intentions don't really factor in for me there much, it's just logical. Anyways different contexts and scenarios can make it varied, but I think we can always reason out situations where someone does need to take responsibility. It can get tricky I'm sure, we could think of all types of dilemmas hehe.
And you're right about how intent does matter, as I said as well. They still performed an action, that demonstrated their intent, despite the result not being what they wanted. Catching people before they execute it is ideal, like in conspiracy cases. Intention does matter no doubt ;)
Would a "thought crime" be supported as a valid intent to convict someone of crime? I wonder how far things will go with future tech and crime prevention laws...
Sure, but that's what makes them interesting, too. Looking at cases that are in the fuzzy borders between action, intent and result helps us understand how they are connected and what we view as more relevant.
Depends on what exactly gets defined as a thought crime I think. For instance, I might hate my neighbor so much that I might even think that he doesn't deserve to live. I could go as far as to thinking that if there would be no consequences, I would kill him and I might even imagine killing them. But none of those qualifies are real intent in my opinion.
Oooh I am so happy you broached this! Action is the key ingredient, which lately with all the new age jargon, seems to be left out completely.
My response always is: So, right now, think about your dishes being done. Are they done? Think about your clean kitty litter box. Still full of crap ain't it?
Hmmmm...funny how no one can have success with thought alone to do the simplest tasks, like even turning on a light they need to see with, yet they will believe that the world's problems, and even huge issues in their own lives can be solved just by thinking good thoughts about it.
Hehe, yeah, good example. They speak of it as literal, but it's not literal. It's symbolic to mean that our thoughts create our actions that alter, affect, change and shape the reality that exists before us. But not thoughts alone, or themselves. We apply force through our action to move ourselves and other things, and change the human world. Thanks for the feedback.
No problem. Thank YOU for continuously bringing logic to the forefront.
"It's the thought that counts." I usually hear that when someone is trying to fix people's relationships (romantic or otherwise) and ending up making the divide wider. In any case, I do agree. The result has the most impact in that it's the one that people will have to deal with after. Like how in a discussion the other day there was a mention about pulling a knife out of a stabbed person. A senior doctor pulled it out as a reflexive response even when he knew better. The man bled out and died despite the OR just a floor away. So from here, it's clear the doctor's instinct had him trying to help, bypassing training and reflexively pulling the knife out. And it cost someone his life. The intention was there but the action's outcome had been disastrous. So it's really important that our chosen actions have been evaluated first. No use rushing head on to execute something without any concretely appropriate plans.
I'm not going to be completely judgmental because I'm not about to blow everything out of proportion. After all, I've also have fallen on the "good intentions" trap and have heard it used a lot of times. If it's not getting someone killed or ruining someone's life indefinitely, I tend to let things go because when I do mess up like cleaning up the kitchen and unintentionally clearing stuff away and getting yelled at later, I feel crappy. And I'm not about to make someone else feel crappy over something like that. I'd be miffed if it happened to me, sure, but I'll forget about it anyway. But that's just me lol
Yeah, we move on for sure. I've only hear it a few time where someone said "the intention is what matters" or something like that, to excuse someone else or themselves. It can be from doing a wrong, or even getting a gift that is not liked, someone had the best of intentions lol. Thanks for the feedback.
Your fine article strongly reminded me of this, from James:
😄😇😄
Yeah, words only go so far. Faith as thought but needing works as action. Good analogy ;)
Great article! Really enjoyed it. It's true when people say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. There's a book on this topic called ordinary men which talks about how normal police officers in Germany during the nazi era went from being normal cops to committing some of the most horrific atrocities ever known to man. The cops had the best of intentions and in fact the nicer, and higher in consciousness they were, the more likely they were to submit to authority and do as they were told.
Yeah its sad how "well intentioned" people get into something and then they keep going the same path and do bad things, making their intentions worthless when they choose to do wrongs. If people are really of the more important kind of higher consciousness, they would not accept to be under that authority and obey its commands. Thanks for the feedback.
My pleasure, sorry meant conscientiousness, which is how hard working and orderly one tends to be, but also correlates with submitting to authoring and conforming. And also that book talks about how if you were in their shoes and lived their lives, you would do exactly what they did. Thanks again for sharing
I disagree. Not everyone did.
Some did leave, but others felt bad about leaving their fellow soldiers to do the "dirty work", so they decided to stay, and that aspect of human nature is directly correlated with conscientiousness.
Great post, makes one think. Good intentions are important but only matter if you do good deeds. Intentions should be based in values and humanism. All of this is about subjectivity, but good intentions only are not enough. They can be the excuse for immature and selfish actions. Only if you are aware of the consequences of your actions (will it spread good around, besides being good to me, won't they hurt thirds?) your intentions will be good also in a objective way. That's what I think. But this themes are the ground for wider discussions. Cheers, @krnel, it's always gratifying reading your philosophical thoughts.
Yeah, subjectively we develop the inner workings that lead to the objective of objective actions in the world.
As long we don't limit ourselves to be the subject of our inner workings and try to be objective and emphatic so their outcome are also good, or at least, positive to others.
Actions indeed create the reality. Intentions motivate out actions but it is the action that makes it real.
Deep, very good.
I think that I may have some idea where you are taking this.
Keep steemin brother!