This fun filled family friendly event is in its sixth year, and with forecasted highs around 85 degrees, looks to be a perfect day before everyone heads back to school. Old Town Museum is gearing up for Pioneer Days this Saturday, Aug. Let's never become so arrogant that we put our intentions ahead of their impact.ĭo you have a strong opinion that could add insight, illuminate an issue in the news, or change how people think about an issue? We want to hear from you. There are many ways our kindness can kill. Most of the world's problems are caused not by bad people, but by good people acting short-sightedly. So behaving morally is not just a matter of what's in our hearts but what's in our heads.Īre we experienced and informed enough to game out any ripple effects our actions may have? Do we have the humility to recognize the gaps in our knowledge and defer to expert input? Someone who means well but is self-absorbed, prejudiced, impulsive, or reckless, according to Aristotle, bears the responsibility for the negative impact their ill-informed actions may have on others. More than 2,000 years ago, the Greek philosopher Aristotle observed that virtue requires not just good intentions but also practical wisdom - enough knowledge of the world to predict, with reasonable accuracy, the consequences of one's actions. It's easier to see the happiness a treat like an apple gives a horse today than it is to imagine the harm that unchecked feeding by strangers may cause to that animal down the road. Newfoundland pony dies after being overfed by visitorsĪccording to Merton, we can also make the mistake of allowing short-term rewards to distract us from long-term impacts.Prohibition in various parts of North America from the 1870s to the 1930s enriched and empowered organized crime. History is replete with examples of well-intended plans gone horribly awry. Objectively, though, an injury is no less severe whether it's inflicted maliciously or unwittingly. This is called the harm-magnification effect: we subconsciously amplify the fallout of wrongs done on purpose.
For the version where the water was diverted, though, they projected damages of $5,120 - almost double what they assumed when they believed the drought was accidental. The study's participants were then asked to estimate the community's financial losses due to the drought.įor the version where the drought was caused by lack of rain, they pegged the value of the community's damages more or less accurately at $2,753. In the first version of the scenario, the river went dry due to a lack of rain in the mountains, while, in the second version, a man who lived in a town nearby had diverted the flow. In one study, participants were given two versions of a scenario in which a river dried up, afflicting a community with drought. If the puppet knocked the tower over on purpose, on the other hand, it's on its own.Īs adults, not only do we think it's less ethical when someone hurts us intentionally, we see the harm itself as greater than when someone hurts us accidentally. If there's something we can all learn from this sad event, it's that doing the right thing requires more from us than just good intentions.įrom an early age, we learn to judge people's actions based mainly on their motives.Īfter watching a puppet show, infants as young as 10 months old will reach for a puppet that knowingly helped another character in preference to one that didn't.īy the time they're ready for preschool, toddlers will intervene when an adult punishes a puppet for accidentally knocking over a block tower they built together. Little Catalina's death is heartbreaking not only because it was preventable but because the people who killed her almost certainly thought they were helping her. That's the sobering message of the sign that has stood outside the horse paddock at Driftwood Acres in Stephenville, N.L., since one of the farm's endangered Newfoundland ponies, Little Catalina, died after being overfed apples by passersby. For more information about CBC's Opinion section, please see the FAQ.
This column is an opinion by Ainsley Hawthorn, a writer and cultural historian in St. A Newfoundland pony, Little Catalina, died after it was fed too many apples.
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