Allow me to tell you the story of Jimmy.

Jimmy was a young boy playing army men with his friend Jonny. Jonny had a magnificent toy tank. Jimmy wanted to play with it, but Jonny didn’t want to share. Jimmy wanted to play with it anyway and took the tank. Jonny gave him a knuckle sandwich for his troubles. Now both Jimmy and Jonny were but little boys and as such, while Jimmy’s face certainly smarted, there was no damage. In a normal world that would have been that.

Jimmy’s mother heard his cries and came rushing into the room.

Jonny! How could you do that? Violence is never the answer. Tell Jimmy you’re sorry and shake hands.

Jonny apologized as he shook Jimmy’s hands, not sorry at all. Jimmy learned he could share people’s things whether they wanted to or not.

*15 years later*

Jimmy and Jonny are going to college. I don’t remember what they were studying because it isn’t important. What’s important is that Jimmy and Jonny live across from one another in an apartment. One day, Jimmy’s walking back up the stairs and notices that Jonny’s door is wide open. He walks inside to investigate when he spots a rather large pile of $5000 in cold, hard cash and a pile of white powder. Apparently Jionny’s been doing well with his side business. Jimmy decides he needs to borrow some cash for activities and the $5000 sitting in front of him is perfect. Later that day, Jonny returns home only to find that his cash from his drug dealing has up and went.

He walks across the hall and knocks on Jimmy’s door.

Jimmy did you take my money?

Jimmy with dollars hanging in his waist band says that he has not.

Jimmy – first you steal my money and now you lie to my face.

And with that – Jonny the drug dealer stabs Jimmy to death.

__________

What just happened is life and the end therefore when someone learns a lesson later on in life, when the cost of learning is higher than it is earlier on. Had Jimmy’s mom not stepped in – he would have suffered a sore face and a good lesson in interpersonal relations.

Secondly, it’s no coincidence that Von Clausewitz once called War “Politics by other means”. At the very basic level – Jonny punched Jimmy in the face when he saw that politely expressing his lack of desire to share did not dissuade or prevent Jimmy in any way from taking his beloved possession of a toy tank.

Ergo?

~Wald