The law of unintended consequences

I found myself looking for a article on the web about unintended consequences to create a link on one of my other blogs, Meditation Matters, and I found one that I think is quite excellent. It is called "Exploring the law of unintended consequences" and is subtitled "DRM and asbestos curtains meet the Shah of Iran".

Here's how it kicks off:

Back in the 1970s, long before the revolution that would eventually topple him from power, the Shah of Iran was one of America's best friends (he was a dictator who brutally repressed his people, but he was anti-communist, and that made him OK in our book). Wanting to help out a good friend, the United States government agreed to sell Iran the very same intaglio presses used to print American currency so that the Shah could print his own high quality money for his country. Soon enough, the Shah was the proud owner of some of the best money printing machines in the world, and beautiful Iranian Rials proceeded to flow off the presses.

Really, I do recommend that you click through on the title above and see how the story unfolds. G.W. Bush, of course, with his reliance on his gut feelings and strong belief in black and white thinking, has had no respect for this principle at all. Let's hope that Obama gets it.