The Playground of Anarchy

I have always thought about the anarchy of the world in terms of children on a playground. There is no adult supervision. The kids are free to play as nicely or as meanly as suits their whims--it is a delicate balance between playing nicely and outright chaos.

The U.S., as the hegemony, has the status of "cool guy jock." He glides about the playground, avoiding certain shady looking corners, and uses his status to alter the behavior of the other children. "Israel was here first--you need to go over there, Palestine" and such of the sort. A lot of the kids are on U.S.'s side, even though they gossip, but there are many kids who hate U.S.

France is the sissy in nice clothing who sits at the top of the slide, and refuses to go down on the account that his shoes will get dirty.

North Korea is the skinny boy on ritalin who runs around and jabs unsuspecting kids with a stick.

The clique of Europeans are arm in arm, with England as the alpha female.

Russia, of course, is the big kid sitting by himself on the swing set, muttering to himself.

China is the bully who socks people when nobody's looking, and then blames it on somebody else as he trades his cheap toys for the U.S.'s allowance.

It wouldn't take much...perhaps Pakistan throws a punch. Maybe its Iran and Israel--and then it's chaos. Dirt and wood chips go flying. There's yelling and pulling hair, and as soon as somebody pushes France off the slide,everyone must take sides. If, for instance, Brazil tries to remain neutral, he won't last long. The children realize that, in order to avoid swirlies and sever wedgies, they must have an alliance of friends to help protect themselves.

The problem is, one of the kids found a bomb, and he realized he can blow up his neighbor with it. There are many bombs laying around, and all one has to do is pick it up. And throw it.

How long will they last?