A pebble that can rock the world (sticks & stones): Part I

My pebbles collection
from the River Rhine.

Do you remember when you were small and playing at the school yard or at the kampung field or the housing estate playground, when a fight broke out?

Children fight over many things, sometime silly things, and sometime serious things.

Sometime fights start because one kid insult or call another kid, bad names, most probably "sissy" or "pondan" or words to that effect.

But then, once in a while, a kid will not take the bait.
He believes in the English rhyme "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never break me".

A discerning bully, knowing that he cannot trigger this kid with personal insult, will switch tactic.
What did he do?

He picked a random pebble from the ground, placed it carefully near his feet.
He would point at the pebble and said "this is your mother/father's head", and proceeded to step on the pebble and with all his might, tried to crush the pebble as if crushing the skull of the aforementioned kid's parent's head.

And just like that, the previously calm and nonchalant kid, which was impervious to any and all verbal abuse, suddenly, turned into a tiger and attacked the bully.

The mantra, you can insult me all you like, but, hell for you if you step on a pebble while pointing at it and at the same time saying that it was my parent/loved one's head.

Does that make sense to you?
I suppose if you were a child, it makes perfect sense to defend the honour and integrity of a pebble.
Children after all are susceptible to suggestion.
If you say, there is a monster under the bed, or there is a "penunggu" at that "simpang" of the village where the big old tree is, they would believe you.
So, it's not a stretch for them to believe that a pebble is the same as their beloved mother's head.

This in itself is not a problem.
They are immature children.
Once they grow up, they should have outgrown this.
They would laugh with their former enemies (or "frenemies", if you are Batman/Superman fans) at how silly they were, forget all about it and move on.

But unfortunately, this does not happen.
Sure, the thin skinned kid that cannot handle personal insult, will grow thicker skin and be insult-proof.
But he will adopt the ethics of the other kid.
You can insult me, but hell for you if you insult my loved ones.
This is considered honourable. 
And in a globalised society that believe in absolute freedom of speech on one hand; and on the other, a society in which God and His Prophet is more beloved than even your own mother/father/wife/husband/children, this is a time bomb.  


To be continued...