"All of my working life as a Probation Officer in West Yorkshire, I performed my most effective work through the discipline of 'Behaviourism,' which is better known today under the social umbrella of 'Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.' This way of working essentially places great stress upon the underlying consequences of one's actions in order to establish a baseline from which to change the behaviour pattern of another.
For most of my life, I have been interested in the distinction between the intention of one's action and the consequences of them. While the consequences of one's actions are undoubtedly most important to the Behavourist, it is the intent which drives those actions that most matter to the Philosopher from a moral standpoint.
From the earliest of our childhood years, we quickly learn (without the need to repeat the process), that if we stick our hand in the fire, we burn it! Such is a natural consequence of our foolish action. Through many childhood experiments and exploration of the world around us, we also learn that eating all the cake instead of one slice will make us sick and rolling around in muddy fields will not keep our clothes clean.
If this be so, is it not the most noble of intentions that we seek to eradicate the world of those consequences that sicken us to the stomach?
What then must we do to keep clean our thoughts, keep truthful our word, keep faithful our vows and positive our intentions? The simple answer is that in order to firmly establish such positive attributes within our overall behaviour pattern, we need to practise and practise them over and over until they become an involuntary response to all we think, feel and do.
Any upright man or woman knows deep down that a tree falls the way it leans and empty sacks never stand upright. As sure as night follows day, and as sure as God made little apples, consequences always follow actions. However fast a horse may run quickly, it will never escape its tail. We do well therefore, always to seek the truth and endure the consequences!
Just think of the tragedy of not teaching our young that every action they engage in will have a consequence, every reaction a response. We should also teach them that we are responsible for our own intent and actions; nobody else, and therefore it behoves us to own the things we say and do. Advise them always to remain truthful in what they mean, say and do, as liars need no settings of traps to trip them up; they set their own traps. Finally, warn them of the consequences of not getting back up when something or someone in life knocks them down. I frequently watched the weekly wrestling on the television as a teenager, from which I learned a profound truth. The only way one can hold another down and keep them down, is by staying down with them.
Therefore, be not too shallow in outlook and put everything that happens in your life down to luck, fate or destiny. Instead, remain sensible and rational and believe in cause and effect.
During my late parents' early years of marriage, they were as happy as two people could be, but as the children continued to be born and the means of supporting them became harder, they often argued. I recall a piece of irony that my mother once told me as a teenager: 'Billy, whatever you think of me, never feel sorry for me. Some bad things I've done, I never meant to do, and most things that went wrong, I brought upon myself. At the end of the day, an intelligent woman who reads the marriage contract and then goes ahead with it, deserves all that she gets!'
I will end with this thought. However powerful a person is, they cannot hinder another's free will. It is our own actions that will be brought to account on the Day of Judgement. Free will gives us all the capacity to make choices either good or bad and if we do not wish to burn ourselves in the next life, we do well to keep away from the fires of temptation in this!" William Forde: July 22nd, 2016.