What is the worst policy in human history? British journalist Tom Phillips said, “One example is Mao Zedong’s extermination campaign. As a result of this policy, locusts caused food damage, and at least 15 million people starved to death.”
*This article is written by Tom Phillips and translated by Aki Nesota.The world history of the megaton-class “failure”(Kawade Bunko)
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※The photograph is an image
Mao Zedong’s extermination campaign brought about the worst results
The story of human progress begins with the expansion of thought and creativity. This is the difference between humans and other animals, but at the same time, it is because of this breadth that we end up being hopeless idiots on a daily basis.
The ecosystem is a complex thing, and if the delicate balance of nature is disturbed, it will inevitably be shaken back. Humanity has learned it the hard way. The story I am going to tell is so striking that it has never been before or since in the history of mankind.
Mao Zedong’s extermination campaign should be viewed as the worst public health policy of all time and a perfect success in destroying everything. This policy brought all aspects of society together to go all in on the goal, and outperformed it to an astonishing degree.
Half of the goals almost certainly resulted in large and broad improvements in the health of the population. Therefore, two out of the four harms may be considered not bad. Worse, the fourth target resulted in tens of millions of deaths.
The root of the problem lies in the unpredictability of ecosystem complexity. Well, let’s just add a seed here, let’s take some seeds out of it, we think. That would make everything better.
That’s when “unexpected consequences” occur, bringing friends “domino effects” and “cascading failures”. In other words, the situation becomes like a disaster version of “Warashibe Choja” or “If the wind blows, the cooper will be profitable”, and everyone is friendly and open up.
National disasters are caused by living organisms
When Chairman Mao Zedong’s communists seized power in China in late 1949, the country suffered a medical crisis and epidemics of infectious diseases such as cholera, plague and malaria. Mao Zedong’s goal was to transform an agrarian nation that had emerged from feudalism only a few decades ago into a modern industrial powerhouse in one fell swoop, and something had to be done to balance the two.
Some of the solutions were obvious and sensible. These include plans for mass vaccination and improved hygiene. The problem began when Mao Zedong turned his criticism of the national crisis on living creatures, blaming them for the national disaster.
Mosquitoes spread malaria, and rats spread the plague. I can’t deny it so far. So a national plan was made to reduce that number. Unfortunately, Mao didn’t stop there. If this was a campaign to end dual harm, the plan might have worked.
But Mao decided (without even asking the experts) to add two other species. The speared fly was to be eradicated because it was annoying.
What is the fourth harm? Of course it was a sparrow.
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2023-07-29 08:00:00
