ABSTRACT

Do extreme, unethical governmental policies often produce results opposite to those intended? This book considers the ironic outcomes of recent global events and concludes that there is a 'rule of reverse results' at work. While not a hard and fast law, the rule points out the increased probability that a policy will backfire if it is immoral while ethical policies, even if extreme, are unlikely to produce reverse results. The issue here is that of increased likelihood but not of certainty. Governments can never be sure as to the effects of their actions: to some extent they are always working in the dark. But if the motivation is right, moral and humane the policies will not often produce adverse results the opposite of those intended. Based on events in global history in the Twentieth and Twenty-First centuries the chapters can each be read individually, as well as being part of the argument.

chapter |5 pages

Introduction

section |16 pages

China and Russia

section |7 pages

The Second World War

section |14 pages

Genocide

section |4 pages

Massacres with apparently no reverse results

section |6 pages

Further unethical policies that have not produced reverse results

section |24 pages

Peacemakers with positive results