Pray for The Morning

Friday, 21st February 1997

The synonym for "stupid" I've been looking for all week and I've finally got it: it's "fatuous". Wonderful word; the OED defines it as "vacantly silly; purposeless, idiotic", it's in all the books and is easily missed. So, let's get fatuous.
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"The Road to Hell is paved with good intentions." The bit that always bothered me as a child was that the Road to Hell was paved in the first place. I was familiar with tarmac, aggregate, concrete and even cobbles, but a paved road? Anaethema.

However, I see that phrase now not so much as a truism but as a prophecy. A prophecy that states that the end of the world is to be wrought through pedestrianised shopping areas. Don't ask me how, but the evidence is all there. Minor connecting carriageways laid with slabs of stone by councils to cut down on pollution, congestion and road traffic accidents. Roads paved with good intentions. And they shall lead us into Temptation.