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<v Speaker 1>You see, the reason you want to be better is

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<v Speaker 1>the reason why you aren't. We aren't better because we

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<v Speaker 1>want to be because the road to hell is paved

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<v Speaker 1>with good intentions. Because all that do gooders in the world,

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<v Speaker 1>whether they are doing good for others or doing it

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<v Speaker 1>for themselves, are trouble makers on the basis of kindly.

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<v Speaker 1>Let me help you, or you'll drown, said the monkey,

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<v Speaker 1>putting the fish safely up a tree. We White Anglo

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<v Speaker 1>Saxon Protestants, British, German, American have been on a rampage

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<v Speaker 1>for the past hundred or more years to improve the world.

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<v Speaker 1>We have given the benefits of our culture, our religion,

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<v Speaker 1>our technology to everybody except perhaps the Australian Aborigines. And

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<v Speaker 1>we have that they received the benefits of our culture,

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<v Speaker 1>even our political styles, our democracy. You had better be

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<v Speaker 1>democratic or we'll shoot you. And having conferred these blessings

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<v Speaker 1>all over the place, we wonder why everybody hates us. See,

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<v Speaker 1>because sometimes doing good to others, and even doing good

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<v Speaker 1>to oneself is amazingly destructive, because it's full of conceit.

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<v Speaker 1>How do you know what's good for other people? How

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<v Speaker 1>do you know what's good for you? If you say

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<v Speaker 1>you want to improve, then you ought to know what's

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<v Speaker 1>good for you. But obviously you don't, because if you did,

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<v Speaker 1>you would be improved. So we don't know. And what

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<v Speaker 1>seems a good thing today or yesterday, like DDT, turns

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<v Speaker 1>out tomorrow to have been a disaster. What seemed in

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<v Speaker 1>the moral and spiritual sphere, too, like great virtues in

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<v Speaker 1>times past, are easily seen today as hideous evils. Let's take,

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<v Speaker 1>for example, the Inquisition. In its own day. Among Catholics,

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<v Speaker 1>the Holy Inquisition was regarded as we today regard the

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<v Speaker 1>practice of psychiatry. You see, you feel that in curing

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<v Speaker 1>a person of cancer, almost anything is justified. The most

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<v Speaker 1>complex operations, the most weird surgery, people suspended for days

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<v Speaker 1>and days on end, on the end of tubes with

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<v Speaker 1>X ray penetration, burning or people undergoing shock treatment, people

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<v Speaker 1>locked in the colorless, monotonous corridors of mental institutions. In

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<v Speaker 1>all good faith, they knew that which in heresy, we're

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<v Speaker 1>terrible things, awful plagues, imperiling people's souls forever and ever,

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<v Speaker 1>so any means we're justified to cure people of heresy.

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<v Speaker 1>We don't change, We're doing the same thing. Today, but

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<v Speaker 1>under different names. We can look back at those people

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<v Speaker 1>and see how evil that was, but we can't see

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<v Speaker 1>it in ourselves. So therefore beware virtue. Lautsa, the Chinese philosopher, said,

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<v Speaker 1>the highest virtue is not virtue, and therefore really is virtue.

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<v Speaker 1>But inferior virtue cannot let go of being virtuous, and

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<v Speaker 1>therefore is not virtue. Related in more of a periphrastic way,

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<v Speaker 1>the highest virtue is not conscious of itself as virtue,

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<v Speaker 1>and therefore really is virtue. Lower virtue is so self

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<v Speaker 1>conscious that it's not virtue. In other words, when you breathe,

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<v Speaker 1>you don't congratulate yourself on being virtuous, But breathing is

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<v Speaker 1>a great virtue. It's living. When you come out with

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<v Speaker 1>beautiful eyes blue or brown or green, as the case

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<v Speaker 1>may be, you don't congratulate yourself for having grown one

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<v Speaker 1>of the most fabulous jewels on earth, just just eyes,

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<v Speaker 1>and you don't account it a virtue to see, to

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<v Speaker 1>entertain the miracles of color and form. You say, oh,

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<v Speaker 1>that's just, But that's real virtue. Virtue in the sense

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<v Speaker 1>that the old sense of the word a strength is

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<v Speaker 1>when we talk about the healing virtue of a plant.

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<v Speaker 1>That's real virtue. But the other virtues are stuck on

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<v Speaker 1>they're air sights, their imitation virtues, and they usually create

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<v Speaker 1>trouble because more diabolical things are done in the name

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<v Speaker 1>of righteousness. And be assured that everybody of whatever nationality

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<v Speaker 1>or political frame of mind or religion, always goes to

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<v Speaker 1>war with a sense of complete rightness. The other side

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<v Speaker 1>is the devil. Our opponents, whether in China or Russia

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<v Speaker 1>or Vietnam, have the same feeling of righteousness about what

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<v Speaker 1>they're doing as we have on our side, and a

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<v Speaker 1>plague on both houses, because, as Confucius said, the goody

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<v Speaker 1>goodies are the thieves of virtue, which is the form

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<v Speaker 1>of our own proverb, the road to hell is paved

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<v Speaker 1>with good intentions.