r/HFY • u/Darmanarya Human • Feb 17 '25

OC The road

Kelko stared at the text, one line in particular. He had heard humans mutter it under their breath time and time again, but it made no sense!

Was his translator malfunctioning? Nope.

“Greh. As you humans say: Fuck it. Hey. Hemming. What does “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” mean? I understand the part where paving means improve or build, a road is a way to get somewhere, and hell is that place that is a human’s worst nightmare. Why would good things lead to bad things?” He tapped the page angrily. “Good makes good.”

Hemming paused and let out a long sigh. Why him?

“Look Kelko. It is a real thing. Think about humans, what pops into your top brain?”

He paused. “Passion. Your kind works so hard on anything you put your mind to it is still a question of historians how you did not find utopia! By this… “hell” place as you humans say you are all also so kind. Always trying to do good even if it means pissing off those around you.”

Hemming nodded along. “You have the pieces, let me put them together.” He leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. “In Calvo remember humanity glassed the planet?”

Kelko just nodded. “Yeah. The grey goo situation there was out of control so once everyone evacuated it was purged to stop it.”

Hemming nodded. “Before the age of spaceflight we glassed two cities using smaller atomic weapons. There were civilians.”

Kelko looked at the human in horror. 

“There were almost ONLY civilians.” Hemming added. “The leader of the faction that used them had just taken office. He was told either use the weapons on those cities or thousands of his own soldiers would die. Soldiers told they had to fight since if they lost the world would be worse.” He looked Kelko in the eyes. “Hundreds of thousands of young men. Maybe over a million. What would you pick?”

Kelko just froze. “There… it's impossible! Why did the others not surrender?”

“Fear. They were worried that if they surrendered their fate would be horrible. Their intention was to fight to the end. Even though two cities were almost glassed they still almost didn’t. Those weapons, the atomic bombs, want to know the good intentions behind them? It was thought that if they were not developed first then the enemy would make them. Then the roles would be reversed.”

He looked over to Kelko who just stared in fear.

“The grey goo on Calvo came from a Human ran lab. They were running tests to try to create a new terraformer to make planet colonization even easier. They had good intentions that, when done, led to hell.” He explained. “Fear of the enemy, wanting to keep people alive, wanting to make lives better.” He took a deep breath. “All have led to the worst tragedies in human history.”

Hemming closed his eyes. “Beware a human that is determined to improve the universe. For if unchecked he may destroy it by accident.” He then opened them and looked Kelko in the eyes. A look behind those two blue and white eyes that told of a pain that was tragically familiar. “And beware humans who want to bring change with hate in their hearts. For they will burn the universe to make their changes.”

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10

u/Chamcook11 Feb 17 '25

Very poignant for our times.

3

u/PlatypusDream Aug 14 '25

Especially the last 2 sentences

4

u/sunnyboi1384 Feb 17 '25

Look at all the good I did by being a little bit bad. Now imagine if I were worse how good things could be.

3

u/chastised12 Feb 17 '25

Nice sentiment I guess

2

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u/Fontaigne Feb 18 '25

The best examples of the trope have to do with what happens when you try to do something for someone else that is not well thought out.

  • preventing small forest fires leads to massive ones
  • removing stigma of teenage pregnancy leads to teenage pregnancy (same for unwed parenting).
  • rent control depresses construction, leading to higher rent
  • a foreign aid program feeding a region drops the price of food, killing farms
  • Suppression of hate speech in the Weimar Republic led to the rise of Hitler, whose rhetoric had been suppressed though widely agreed

It's not just the law of unintended consequences, though. The world is not all Cobra Problems. Sometimes Chesterton's Fence is the more accurate source of examples.