I just watched a video about Alan Watts « discussing » this proverb.

It was shocking to me how it’s a combination of fallacies and manipulations.

I could spend a lot of time debunking this video, but I have limited time and energy so I am sharing the comment I took the time to write. A lot more could be said about it:

Well, that’s quite the nest of fallacies. Pretty surprised Alan Watts said things like this, but I know very little about him (except his halo of being a great philosopher).

Starting with the main proverb: « The road to hell is paved with good intentions ».

What does this saying implies? If you remove good intentions, what intentions are left? Bad, and neutral.

So, the road to heaven is paved with bad and neutral intentions? How could it work?

If one kills another person because he wanted it, or puts itself first by enslaving others (aka capitalism), is it the way to heaven?

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The other issue is that this is talk and drawings are full of fallacies. Curing diseases does not mean automatically we are going to have overpopulation and famine for all. Birth control is one way of managing the population. The earth is very large and we could live elsewhere than clumped in big cities. More population does not mean we will consume the same way, in a very abundance and wasteful manner for the rich countries and in a deeply lacking in poor countries. An equilibrium could and should be found.

Having good intentions is not « evil » as all this seems to portray it with an analogy to Hitler. Having selfish intents decorated as good intentions is. But these are not good intentions, or they are lacking self-awareness of how truly have good intentions.

And it means taking into account a lot of variables on how to do truly good.

Obviously, this is a difficult task, and not everyone think the same way about what is good and what is bad.

Billionaires think taxes on them are not good. So they attack the virtue, equity, poor people, etc…to make their case.

But with this video, then billionaires are right because they are not doing things with good intentions. It’s all « well, do what you can and good luck. You’re on your own. And against me obviously, you good one ».

I see a raise in shading dark on what brings light. And it’s scary.