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The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions
Shoshin1
Sentient BeingOceania Veteran
Interesting...
3
Comments
He is not wrong, if you don’t know the domain well you cannot accurately determine a “good” course of action, and what from one perspective may appear good and desirable from another may be quite despicable.
The number of people through history who thought they were doing evil things for evil reasons is probably relatively few. Everyone thinks they're doing what's right and good.
As he says in the middle, at differing times differing qualities will be of greater value due to circumstances. I think the problem is when those qualities get hardened into "THE good for all time and all people". Homogeneity has the benefit of efficiency and trust, but is vulnerable to changing circumstance and things outside its domain. Diversity requires greater effort but brings innovation and resilience.
I think why democracy and science have shown themselves to be of value is that they have self correcting mechanisms to them. Autocracy and belief based truth can be more effective when they line up with reality, but lack the ability to correct mistakes.