A few what-ifs
Back when I was a kid, when a bully taunted someone, the target would sing out, “I’m rubber and you’re glue! Everything you say bounces off me and sticks to you!”
It didn’t entirely relieve the pain of being bullied, but it gave one the satisfaction of being able to reply in kind without actually saying anything “bad” — without sinking to the bully’s level.
I found myself remembering this ditty the other day after reading a newspaper (not the Beacon) full of reporting on fraught foreign policy situations (as if our domestic problems weren’t bad enough).
Countries imprisoning and even massacring their own citizens, threatening war, firing and testing missiles, destroying satellites, blocking waterways, invading neighbors and on and on.
Our technology has made so much of our lives more productive and simpler, but that is also true — in fact, especially true — of the means of warfare. There is no area of invention more well-funded, and it has always been thus.
So, join me in a little thought experiment. What if there was a new “technology” that, basically, made targets into rubber and bullies into glue?
That is, what if every time a country threatened another with missiles, they would boomerang in mid-air and return to the spot they were fired from? How many more missiles would be fired?
And what if every time a country sent food or doctors to help others after a terrible storm or flood, the favor would immediately redound to the sender’s benefit?
And the same would apply (as long as I’m imagining this) on the individual level. What if every time a would-be murderer or robber aimed a gun or wielded a knife, they knew it would hurt only themselves? And every time a person did a favor or showed someone a courtesy, a similar benefit would accrue to them.
Of course, this is essentially the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
But instead of being a prescription — what we “should” do for moral reasons and without expectation of a return benefit — I’m suggesting we consider what the world would be like if it was built into life itself that you got back exactly what you gave, whether good or bad. And right away, not years later.
How would our behavior change? How would the world look? What troubles that we have today would disappear, and what problems would be solved? Evil would destroy evil and good would engender good.
Of course, this isn’t at all the way the world works. And as amazing as today’s technology can be, I doubt such a device or software could be created.
Still, it’s worth pondering and, maybe, even acting in our individual lives as if it’s true.
In some cases, it already is. Show the world a smile, and you’ll undoubtedly get some smiles in return. Go out of your way for someone, and odds are they will, at some point, return the favor, or at least offer thanks.
And, I think, it’s also true that when we show ourselves to be selfish or even just short-tempered, we earn precious little good will from others.
That said, as long as evil and selfish people exist, we cannot deny ourselves the means of defense or unilaterally destroy our weapons. We are most certainly not living in a world where bad people destroy themselves, unfortunately.
Foreign and domestic strife will certainly continue to fill our newspapers, TVs and computer screens.
Still, in an individual sense, we create our own “micro-climates,” you might say. We set the temperature felt around ourselves and, through our actions, help determine whether sunshine or clouds follow us during the day.
Much of that power, at least, is in our hands right now. It’s something we can put into effect whenever we want. I commend it to you for the rest of this still new year.
