This is an article I wrote many years ago that I feel may be about to happen to humanity.
Slap Around
During the time of the great square sail ships, sailors of the British Navy took joy in
playing a game I dubbed “slap around”. Their huge warships carried 500 men and a
dozen or two young cabin boys. Invariably on each voyage there were at least half a
dozen new boys around the age of nine venturing to sea their first time. Once at sea the
sailors would get bored and initiate those first timers.
A short piece of rope was tied to each boy’s left wrist with the other end being lashed to
the mast placing the boys in a circle facing each other’s back. Their right hand held a
board. There were only two rules to the game. When you were tapped by the boy
behind you, you had to tap the one before you. You could hit as hard or soft as you
wanted; you were free to choose.
After several rounds of slightly tapping each other someone would always feel that they
had been tapped too hard and would accelerate his blows. Before long the sailors would
be roaring with laughter at the sight of the boys beating the hell out of each other. What
was so funny (or sad) was that all that was needed was for one boy to choose to go back
to tapping, but they couldn’t comprehend that what they did was a delayed version of
what was coming back around to them. All they had to do was to simply stop!
We are playing in an economic game of slap around that is also torturing us. All we have
to do is to simply choose to stop playing it.