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Something in Good Will

Long story short, I want to make more scientific stuff happened in this blog to balance the number of merely-thought-without-any-ground writing. Or at least a reference happens to be mentioned when I think of some arguable materials. Happy reading!

The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions, is the sentence that turned out to be a maxim. The saying is thought to have originated with Saint Bernard of Clairvaux who wrote (c. 1150), L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés ou désirs or translated as hell is full of good wishes or desires. Whoever came up with it is quite have a brain. And also, it helps explain most of the problems in the world. This phrase has two meanings:

If you have a good intention but don't follow through with it, you won't get into heaven.

If you have a good intention, but it winds up backfiring and causing harm, you won't get into heaven.

Neither meaning is necessarily religious, and I'd bet it's said most-often in secular contexts (In fact, according to some believers, good intentions are half what get you into heaven). When used secularly, the meanings are basically the same, but "heaven" is a metaphor for "results". From this, I conclude that most of us do care about intentions, which we think of as the first step of good actions.

Very few people have bad intentions. But most of the problems in the world are caused by good intentions. They may not seem good to us, but they seem good to the one taking the action. Good intentions alone are not enough to make our actions moral.

All of us justify our actions to ourselves. It is human nature to do so. Leon Felsinger's theory of Cognitive Dissonance posits that we feel psychic distress when we do things that consciously violate our own values, so we create justifications for what we do, allowing us to comfortably live with ourselves. Even Hitler, the modern symbol of ultimate evil, had good intentions, as did his followers. Otherwise, he would not have been able to convince intelligent, educated, enlightened Europeans that the world would be a better place without Jews and other impure people like homosexuals, Gypsies, blacks and intellectually deficient people. However, his good intentions spawned the most horrific genocidal crusade in human history.

We cannot assume that everything that results from our good intentions will be positive. Scientists frequently refer to the "the law of unintended consequences." The best-seller, SuperFreakonomics, repeatedly asserts that we should not underestimate the power of unintended negative consequences.

Good intentions do not automatically lead to moral actions. We must consider the possible negative consequences before we institute interventions. If our interventions cause more harm than good, the interventions are not moral regardless of the loftiness of our intentions.

To think of solution, is to know the systems within.

Hence, the ability to practice systems thinking should be done. In short, systems thinking is a mental discipline and framework for seeing patterns and interrelationships. Quoting Peter Sange (During college, what I learned from him is he’s freak. Almost all reference in modern managerial stuff must related to him), systems thinking is a discipline for seeing the structures that underlie complex situations, and for discerning high from low leverage change. That is, by seeing wholes we learn how to foster health. To do so, systems thinking offers a language that begins by restructuring how we think. So then this discusision conclude to one point: Would you practiced systems thinking from now on?

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