The Harm in a Bad Idea with Good Intentions

In Jonathan Swift's 𝘎𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘴, the Lagado upper class have no real idea about how the world works. They know about stuff in theory, but they have no idea how it functions in practice. All of their ideas have no weight in the real world; they only work in their heads. They try to make clothes that, according to mathematics, will be the best clothes in all the land, but a blind old tailor who has been retired for 40 years can do a better job. They lack real-world experience, so all of their ideas are foolish and will never work. They are really trying to help people, and a lot of people go along with them, not knowing how bad their ideas are.

A lot of harm can come from a good place, and the Lagado are a great example of this. They wholeheartedly want to help, but all of their ideas end up doing more harm than good.