Almost two thousand years ago, Julius Caesar appointed himself as dictator for life and was subsequently assassinated by the Roman Senate whose intention was to save the Roman Republic and its system of democracy. The unintended outcome was the end of the Roman Republic and the establishment of the Roman Empire, ruled by an Emperor and the end of democratic rule in ancient Rome.
The French Revolution overthrew the ruling aristocracy and monarchy in France, with the ideal of liberal democracy. What came out of that? Another Emperor, Napoleon, ruling the French Empire as its autocratic leader, two centuries ago.
Not long afterwards, Karl Marx was a philosopher and critic of capitalism, interested in how to make the world fairer and more egalitarian. Instead, his ideas led to totalitarian dictatorships and oppression.
The Second World War was won against fascism and expansionist dictatorship. This led to the Cold War, the Korean War (which is still in a stand-off today), the Vietnam War, and violence between Israel and Palestine.
The overthrow of the dictators Hussain and Gaddafi led to instability in the Middle-East, the war in Syria, and chaos in Libya.
All through history, there are examples of unintended consequences from changes which had intended to make things better. Why do so many people still believe that we can be successful at fixing the highly complex issues in the world, including environmental change and damage, hunger thirst and poverty, wars and risk of nuclear holocaust, diseases and pandemics, societal polarisation and possibly even societal collapse. Which unintended consequences of our well-intended actions await us?