• UltraHamster64@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    10 hours ago

    Intentions are all that matter!

    No, not really. I can provide like a thousand examples, starting from dodo birds extinction and ending in wars and dictatorships, where the intentions were good, but incompetence, obliviousness, greed, stupidity or/and other factors made the results range from worst to catastrophic.

    Also I’m pretty sure other cultures have some variation of it too. For example in slavic countries there is the saying “make a fool pray to good and he’s gonna hurt himself” which is highlighting similar issues

    • ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      9 hours ago

      Greed is an “intention” though, and the dodo case is just an exception. People are competent enough to live and even “succeed” often despite their incompetence, as seen by history. Intentional wrongdoing, particularly while competent a la Henry Kissinger for instance, has always been the enemy, not incompetent benevolence. We’ve always been able to accommodate the latter, I think.

      Regardless, I meant “all that matters” when it comes to living with oneself and facing God, but incompetence certainly makes things hard for us here.