At least they were sincere

This is an interesting one in the way of comparative moral estimation. One Peter Mehlman, as part of a damning assessment of George W. Bush that centres on the belief that 'the Bush administration is the first that doesn't even mean well', offers the following observation:

You could argue that even the world's worst fascist dictators at least meant well. They honestly thought [they] were doing good things for their countries by suppressing blacks/eliminating Jews/eradicating free enterprise/repressing individual thought/killing off rivals/invading neighbors, etc.

Mehlman obviously hasn't given much thought to the dictum that no one knowingly does evil. Not true without exception, it nonetheless tells you something important about human motivation, self-understanding and concern for the good opinion of others, if only some others. But that's by the way. More alarming is Mehlman's apparent belief that meaning well is some sort of virtue irrespective of what counts for the person concerned as meaning well, as 'doing good things'. Even if it's racial oppression, why, even if it's genocide... so long as it's meant well, then the meaning well is 'at least' something. Others might find this more doubtful. (Via The New Editor.)