Nearly everyone knows the expression, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” This is true, and it helps to explain why there is so much bad going on in the world.
Consider the 20th Century, which was the bloodiest century in history. Nearly 100 million people, all non-combatants, were killed by despotic regimes almost all of them communists. Many people who supported communism, both inside and outside communist countries, believed they were doing well.
Many people had good intentions and paved the way to communist hells.
The truly evil people behind these genocides would not have been able to come to power if it weren’t for a few well-intentioned people who believed communism was a good idea. For example, the secret to creating an atom bomb was given to Stalin by Western men and women (primarily Americans, and Brits), presumably with positive intentions.
What about the rise of Nazism in Germany?
In 1932, Germany’s last free elections, not all Germans voted for Nazism. Hitler actually toned down his antisemitism to appeal to a wider base of German voters in the campaign that year. Only a third of German voters voted for the Nazis in the election. The primary reason they did so was not antisemitism. The Great Depression, Germany’s hyperinflation, fear, and communism were the primary reasons. This means that even a small number of Germans who voted in favor of Hitler had the good intention to solve Germany’s political and economic crises.
The Nazi example is used to illustrate that not all Germans who voted in favor of the man or party responsible for the worst human suffering in history were motivated by bad intent.
Thank God there is no mainstream movement in America with genocidal aims. But the road to lesser hells in this country is almost always motivated by people with good intentions.
I’m sure most teachers who strip young children of their innocence sexually are motivated by good intentions. Many Americans vote for politicians who want to cut funding for the police, which is a recipe for more evil. On Jan. 6, 2021, the overwhelming majority of those who marched on (not to mention those that merely saw open doors, and walked in) the Capitol had good intentions. The vast majority of Americans who believe free speech doesn’t apply to hate speech have good intentions. They want to eliminate hate speech. Yet, they are the first mass movement against freedom of speech in American history. They are a grave threat to freedom in this country. They believe they mean well.
Truth is, only a very small percentage of people awaken every day with the intention to do harm. One month before the 2020 election, 51 intelligence agency heads signed a statement declaring that the Hunter Biden laptop story was “Russian disinformation.” They believed their morally-motivated statement was justified, as they saw the greater good in ensuring that Donald Trump was not reelected.
Good intentions are the best way to get to hell. Most people who do harm, including those who do evil, have good intentions.
Given that good intentions almost always prove to be morally ineffective, what can we do to make good triumph over evil? Or, to put it another way, if our good intentions are not morally worthwhile or worse, actually lead to hell on Earth, then what can we do to pave the road towards heaven on earth?
Wisdom is the answer. Good intentions without wisdom lead to evil.
It is not bad intentions that are the reason for concern about America’s future and Western civilization; rather, it is the fact that elites consist of people without wisdom.
Fools are those without wisdom. Most professors, presidents of colleges, and teachers in elementary and high schools, as well as most editors and journalists, most businesspeople running large companies, and most of the elite (including the medical profession) are fools.
They are fools! These women and men are devoid of wisdom.
They were not taught wisdom. To be able to do good one must learn wisdom, as well as physics to understand physics. There is a good chance that you will be wise if you learn wisdom. If you don’t learn wisdom, chances are that you will become a fool. Fools can do great harm.
Wisdom is not taught in schools or by parents.
American students had to be able to identify the most valuable sources of wisdom, including the ancient Greek and Roman writers, Shakespeare, and the Bible, until the early 20th century.
America began the journey to hell 100 years ago when it stopped teaching wisdom, and what wisdom really is, moral virtue — and when it secularized all education. The universities, then the lower grades, decided that knowledge could replace wisdom. Today, American youth have little or no knowledge and no wisdom.
It’s not an accident that universities are among the most stupid institutions in America and elsewhere in the West. They are also the most fundamentally secular.
It doesn’t take a religious person to see that the most secular institutions can also be the most foolish. It doesn’t matter if you are a fool.
Wisdom is the key to a happy world.
