Good or Bad as adjectives imply a point of view. Like in the picture above, the girl can have the good intention if she had been violated before and the guy is trying to make amends, or, she may just be a misandrist with a long history of hate and so on and so forth and unless we know all the relevant facts, such value judgements are always difficult. I am normally averse to using these words except to state the obvious like Masala Dosa is good food.
Proceeding further, Intentions, good or bad presupposes Free Will. Yes, I know that I am now opening the Pandora’s Box, but like in that myth, I hope that at the end of this story, Hope will arise!
Before I go into my convictions on the entire debunking of intentions, good or bad, let us take a look at two responsible scientists. The first – “The Illusion of Conscious Will” by Dr. Daniel M. Wegner
and the other –“The Meme Machine” by Dr. Susan Blackmore
The former painstakingly establishes empirical proof that the concept of a unified self, which is a necessary precondition for free will, is an illusion. And therefore, free will is also an illusion.
The latter contends that our minds are really just bundles of memes, the beliefs and habits and predilections that we catch from one another like viruses. Take all of the memes out of a mind, and there is no self left to be free and therefore, no free will either!
Let us go for some more empirical study – Read all about Donald Crowhurst here. Were his intentions, good, bad or did he have any free will at all?
Having established my pseudo scientific logic, let me go to my favourite source for wisdom, The Bhagwad Gita. In the last chapter, Krishna tells Arjuna the following:
If you depend only on your pride, If you decide not to fight this war,
That decision is in vain, For your nature would oppress you.
Oh son of Kunti, you are already bound, By your own nature, and if by delusion.,
You decide not to fight in this war, You will be forced to do it, in spite of yourself.
Oh Arjuna, God lives in the mind of everyone,
And causes all of them to revolve like a robot.
Oh Arjuna, take refuge on that God with sincerity,
And you will attain the supreme peace of his eternal abode.
So, I have no free will and therefore I have no intentions good or bad and I go through life in a blissful state of ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude. I hope that The Old Fossil will be happy with my attitude and my take on the subject!
I hope you enjoyed reading this post on the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where thirteen of us write on the same topic. Today’s topic has been chosen by Conrad The Old Fossil. The twelve other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order, Anu, Delirious, gaelikaa, Grannymar, Maxi, Maria SF, ocdwriter, Padmum, Paul, Rohit, Shackman, The Old Fossil and Will. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, do give some allowance for that too!