They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
For years this adage bothered me. I had understood it to mean that if you begin something, you need to finish it. In other words, if you intend to do something, but do not follow through, that will pave the road to your own hell. It seemed like a massive guilt trip for procrastinators.
But the more I think about it, I believe there is another and more profound truth within it. I think it is a caution. After all, you don't pave a road unless you intend to use it.
What do I mean? I'm glad you asked, dear Reader. I don't know what I would do without you.
In recent days, or weeks (I kind of lose track of time these days), the question of intention, or motivation, has come up many times. Over and over again I hear or read of people presuming an intention behind another's actions. The truth, though, is that we can't really know anyone else's intentions. Most of us don't even know our own motivations, so how can we believe we understand anyone else's?
"Why did so-and-so do such-and-such?" I don't know. I can guess, but in the end, I'm not a mind-reader. I can presume, and further actions on their part may make the case more likely, but I really cannot be certain. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Baha'u'llah reminded us that we should "Let deeds, not words, be (our) adorning."
Personally, if I have to guess, I like to believe good intentions on the part of others. I have a hard time believing anybody would get up in the morning, look in the mirror and say, "I think I'll do something horrible today." No. I truly believe that people have good intentions. But this is not necessarily a good thing.
What brought this to mind is the on-going discussion about Residential Schools here in Canada. This was a time when First Nations' children were taken from their homes and put into so-called schools to try and make them more European.
First, let me state that I believe this was a horrible thing to do. It caused untold suffering. The suffering that has been shared is only a tiny part of the suffering that actually occurred. I truly believe this was a horrible practice, and am glad to see the government beginning to make reparations. It has a long way to go, but at least a beginning has been made.
That said, do I believe the motivation behind the original suggestion was good? Actually, I do. Now, please, bear with me for a moment. Hear me out. Forget, for a moment, the horrors that resulted from the abuse of this action, but let's look at the ideas that motivated it in the first place. The people of the day sadly believed that there was a hierarchy of civilizations, as well as a hierarchy of peoples. They truly believed that some people were inherently superior to others, and that some cultures were naturally better. Now, again please don't get me wrong. I think these beliefs are not only incorrect, but downright awful. I am in no way defending them, but just stating what was a mistaken belief at the time.
Given this tragic error, there were people out there who truly thought that it was in the best interest of the children to try and raise them to be more European. They honestly thought it was good for the children to be removed from the "evil" influence of their culture and given one that was "closer to the divine". As one person horrifically said, they wanted to "kill the Indian in the child".
One of the many problems was that they did not take into account the importance of diversity. They also didn't acknowledge the beauty and majesty of another culture. They never dreamed that another culture, especially one that they mistakenly thought of as primitive, could have anything of value to offer the global body of humanity. These lapses are indefensible, and rightly severely criticized.
Even though their motivation may have been good, the improvement in the life of the child, they were horribly mistaken in how to achieve that noble end. (It's amazing how often I am using the word horrible, but it says something about the nature of this topic.)
Even if the abuses, physical, emotional, sexual, cultural, and spiritual, did not occur as they did, this still would have been a great tragedy to all the people involved, the children as well as the families affected. All this other stuff just further compounded it and made it even worse.
Their intention may have been good, and the fact that they put so much time and energy into implementing it shows that they believed it was a good thing, but because of their mistaken beliefs, they walked far along that road to hell. And this resulted in the suffering of many generations of people.
You will notice, of course, that I'm not talking about the greed that was probably involved on the part of some who financially benefited from some of these things, for I believe that is a side issue. I am only focusing on what I perceive to be the good intentions of the majority of those involved. Because, really, it is these good intentions that get noticed and allow these movements to gain public support. No movement ever gained ground by someone saying, "Hey, I'm going to get rich out of it" or "I'm going to become so powerful and influential". No. They gain ground by saying, "We'll improve the economy and you will benefit from more jobs" or "The children will be grateful once they know better". The people get so caught up in what they think is a good thing that they often overlook the inherent problems.
So, to me, this phrase about the "road to hell" being "paved with good intentions" is a caution. It tells me to carefully examine my goals, and look at them from all angles. It warns me to consider the issue from a larger perspective than my just my own self-interest.
Whether we are talking about the movement of immigrants into the country, or the mandatory vaccination for those able to get inoculated, or even a global response to the changing climate, it is really easy to get people riled up in one direction or another. Unfortunately, in many cases political and social support goes to those who only look at a narrow cross section of humanity, without due consideration to the larger picture.
Do I believe the Residential Schools initially had a good goal? Well, educating children is a noble deed, but not without the respect that is due all people and cultures, nor at the expense of diversity.
Do I believe there was suffering from this action? Absolutely.
But more importantly, what have I learned from looking at this issue? That I better be certain that any goal I set my sights on is leading us towards a divine civilization, and not inadvertently leading us towards a hell. For it is through our deeds, not our words, that we shall be judged.
