Too often the answer is no.
All of us do things with good intentions that don’t work
out as hoped. And, ok, we make mistakes
and misjudge what’s the best thing to do.
But we should learn from the experience (and those of others) and try to
do better next time. If we don’t, we are
fools. As the adage goes, to do
something again which failed the first time and expect a different outcome is a
definition of insanity.
To ignore human nature, as those on the left are wont to
do, generates untold misery and worse.
Of course, one can deny that humankind has flawed, ingrained
dispositions or that evil people exist, for instance.
But common sense and history prove otherwise. Does the fate of utopian projects come to
find?
Hope should not supersede reality. [That, to me, is a summary statement of the
Conservative’s political perspective.]
Consider recent examples of what happens when hope
determines policy.
Defund
the police:
I am
confident that the woke Left neither desired nor expected that a jump in crime
rates would ensue in the wake of its demands (anarchists excluded). But they were fools not to have anticipated
such results.
End
hostility to illegal border crossings:
Did
President Biden truly believe that his words opposing Trump’s strict
enforcement would not encourage increased efforts to enter the U.S.?
Yes. I don’t think he wished to invite tens of
thousands of illegals to storm north.
(There is no evidence that he has joined those of the Left who want open
borders.) So what happened was
unintended. But was it unanticipated as
well? Only a fool would think so.
Give
out free money:
The economy is recovering rapidly but progress is being hampered by the apparent
reluctance of many currently unemployed people to work. Why get a job when a person formerly employed
in low-paying service jobs (in restaurants, in particular) gets more money
sitting on the sidelines?
Did the
President and Congress intend to slow the economic recovery? No. But
again, given human nature, was the consequence unanticipated?
