Well-intentioned and idiocy

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

This story is completely fictional, but it is based on a long-standing social phenomenon that is completely real.

One peasant lived in the world. Kind by nature, not greedy, he respected order and cleanliness strongly. He believed in everything … He had a good job, he had a lot of extra money, and since he didn't need a lot, he gave everything to different people who needed him more. I was looking for decent people, and I helped them financially until they got on their feet.

Once he was somewhat tired of living in one place in a dusty noisy city and left for another place, which was better. I chose a quiet village in the forest, at most 40 people were in it, a river nearby, all kinds of animals, grace … One trouble worried him: there was a lot of garbage. Here and there, the locals threw garbage right on the street, or even tourists will certainly overturn all their trips in their carelessness, but right into the beautiful bushes. In summer it is not visible, but in autumn and winter, when the leaves fall, they are exposed, here and there, there are garbage deposits. You go out - like in the trash heap! "Disorder," thought the peasant, "we ought to take matters into our own hands."

And the reason for this is the following. The state at that time was not engaged in the villages. Each has one container for garbage: whoever lives closer, he threw it there, while there is a place, and whoever is far away, he, without hesitation, dumped everything right into the bushes. Then hungry stray dogs tore the sacks, and the wind carried the garbage from them through the village. Sometimes garbage trucks arrived, so the workers only emptied the container, and nearby garbage, which they did not even touch.

And so, the little peasant decided to arrange a subbotnik: he posted announcements everywhere, day to hour, meeting place: he indicated everything as it should be. At the designated time, I approached the place, but there was no one there. I waited for some time - one local hard worker came up and asked: “Where is the subbotnik? Where are the people? " "But there is no one," was the answer. We stood, talked, got to know each other better, and then before that we only saw each other from a distance.

The peasant was not a miss, he went to think about the situation, but that's what he came to. He decided to pay the local residents money so that the garbage could be carried to his site: for every one-liter bag of garbage, one hundred rubles is supposed. I wrote the announcements, indicated everything and the time at which you can come for money. Also, along with this, he entered into an agreement with a private company, so that they would come to him from time to time for garbage.

And it went … at first the people were careful, they say, what a joke it was … whoever brought one bag, received 100 rubles, then more confidently wore two or three. The peasant hoped that there was not enough of his own garbage, they would collect it from the street, and so they would collect it all. Beauty will come … unearthly!

Indeed, one day he looks at a Sunday afternoon, people are slowly collecting garbage from the streets, but they are bringing them to him, just have time to slobber over pieces of paper. And then one local huckster drove up in a van, a body full of sacks: everything was crammed from top to bottom. I received a few thousand, he says, they say, there is still a lot of such good in the forest, he will come again.

And the little man is happy, he does not suspect trouble yet … That hard worker, whom he met in his first unsuccessful attempt, somehow came in and said: “Look in this bag over there, what the huckster brought you”. The peasant looked, and just gasped: there was hay in the sack, mixed with earth, apparently, for greater heaviness.

- But how are they so! I'm kind to them, and they. - the poor fellow was indignant.

- I live in the neighborhood, I saw through the window how he put his hay from the site into a sack, sprinkled it behind the land, there he has a lot of grass mown, once again you have enough for five.

He called the huckster to the carpet, and he backed down, they say, these are not his bags, he honestly collected garbage in the forest, vowed to show where he took it. Yes, it was clear that he was lying … go and check whether he took it there or not there.

Our little peasant was upset, but he strained his turnip even more, decided to do so. Now I checked each bag: I opened it and dug in there. It was disgusting, but people walked, good money was paid. And then I came up with an even better idea: I looked after the people, so that everything was honestly collected from the streets, and I myself helped - I could not sit idle either. Business went on slowly, there was little garbage left in the village, people began to walk into the forest, where tourists usually litter. But he soon needed to leave for work for a couple of weeks. He left the house, left, and returned … and his whole life tumbled at that moment.

He returned as if to another village: everywhere there was even more garbage than before. All the streets along the roadside are littered with some kind of bottles, packages, and the small central square has already turned into a dump. He ran to the hard worker, and he was already waiting for him.

- You understand, this is the matter, - he says, - while you were away, the people realized that there was not enough garbage left, they began to throw their own in the streets, knowing that you were watching how everyone was collecting. And that was not enough for them, the huckster for a bottle asked the driver of the garbage truck to overturn the body right on the square, and the people scattered everything over the square with a pitchfork, then the wind scattered it. Now everyone is waiting for you to collect.

Then our little man bowed his head, sank to the floor, and so he sobbed.

He didn't even go home, got into his car - and drove off somewhere … no one else saw him.

The people were angry that the peasant was gone for a long time, but after that they realized that he had thrown everyone. Out of anger, they began to dump the garbage directly onto its site, the village was small, whoever passed by, threw a bag over the fence, and the site of our peasant turned into a general dump. And no one began to clean the streets. Tourists even now bypass this place, a new path to the river, bypassing the village, has been laid.

And our little man, they say, has gone to another world, where no one crap for himself. Yes, there, in general, there is no time to shit … there, they say, either they fry it in a pan, or flounder in boiling water, and yells, they say, "I didn't want to do that, forgive me," but the main devil is enough for him with a textbook general control theory on the head every time: hry! “You fool, you idiot … well-meaning.

And this phenomenon is called the "Cobra Effect".

To get rid of venomous snakes, the governor appointed a reward for each snake head surrendered. Initially, the number of snakes quickly decreased as a result of their destruction. However, then the Indians quickly adapted, starting to breed cobras in order to receive the award. In the end, when the bonus for the killed cobra was canceled, the breeders released the devalued snakes into the wild, and it turned out that the number of poisonous cobras not only did not decrease, but even increased.

The article provides other examples as well.

A related effect with a similar control error is described in the article "A Photo Story of a Scary Experiment on Poor People in the United States."