Do-Gooders and the Evil They Bring

I was watching the new Ken Burns documentary on the American Prohibition era. It was the result of "do-gooders" who wanted to legislate morality. Their efforts led to deaths from adulterated alcohol, blindness, paralysis. It also led to the rise of organized crime and a couple of thousand gangland killings. It also helped corrupt police forces, the judicial system, and government administrations all across America.

My mind wandered onto this as I was reading stories about 20,000 Ugandan farmers chased off their land by gangs what are selling "carbon credits" for this confiscated land. From the UK's Guardian newspaper:

Land tenure in Uganda is a subject of much dispute, and last year's farming evictions have left 20,000 homeless

...

Longoli and his family of six lost everything last year when, with three months notice, the Ugandan government evicted him and thousands of others from the Mubende and Kiboga districts to make way for the UK-based New Forests Company to plant trees, to earn carbon credits and ultimately to sell the timber.

Today, the village school in Kiboga is a New Forests Company headquarters. More than 20,000 people have been made homeless and Longoli rents a small house in Lubaali village. He says he cannot go back for fear of being attacked.

And as I read the following from the UK Guardian about murders in Honduras as gangs are enforcing land seizures to earn "carbon credits":

EU carbon credits scheme tarnished by alleged murders in Honduras

...

The reported killing of 23 Honduran farmers in a dispute with the owners of UN-accredited palm oil plantations has called into question the integrity of the EU's emission trading scheme (ETS), as carbon credits from the plantations remain on sale.

The "do-gooders" never bother to ponder the possibility of "unintended consequences" from their moral pushiness. All they know is that they have a vision of a "higher morality" and they are going to beat us with sticks until we agree to worship at their twisted view of "the good and moral life". They are a menace with their militant moralizing. History is littered with deaths and injuries of innocents caused by these self-important moral campaigners.