Carrots and Sticks

There are two tricks with carrots and stick. Both involve tempting when it comes to the carrots. The stick can be used a couple different ways. It can be used to beat the victim as a part of the mean and evil consequences that arise from being fooled by the carrot into a trap or it can be used to dangle the carrot unassisted in front of the victim. Either way the culprit uses carrots to entice and stick to do something.

If we look at it on a human level, a carrot can be defined as anything desired of us from others. Those things include but are not limited to money, conversation, deeds, activities, accompaniment, sex (appropriate marital status is preferred), and attention. If anyone uses the withholding of any of those types of things in order to manipulate or punish then they are guilty of using carrots and sticks.

The problem with the approach is that the clever criminal doesn’t usually think about what will happen when the carrot dries and becomes withered and begins to rot and stink and gets those funny looking spots of mold on it. No prey will chase a carrot like that into a trap. Not even a fool will continue to chase the things they want for eternity so there should be a recognition that they will not chase what they don't want anymore for anytime at all.

So here it is for me, you, and everyone else…If you do it with money, be prepared when your money gets funny. If you do it by not speaking to the other person, be prepared when they start talking to someone else. If you do it by denying the needed things for your own people, be prepared when someone else starts doing it. If you do it by refusing to do anything with your significant other, be prepared when they do it with someone else. If you do it by refusing to go places with your partner, be prepared when they go with someone else. If you do it with sex and attention…then you already know.

At a certain point, whatever carrot that is being dangled spoils or rots or begins to decay. Money doesn’t captivate forever because someone else always has more.  Not speaking bears no good results it only further erodes lines of communication. Selling someone out hurts the trust and there is nothing more difficult to repair than trust. Quality time doesn’t matter when the other person no longer desires to spend time with you. Always sending your partner out alone will eventually lead to a meeting between them and that perfect stranger. The sex trick becomes tedious when things are no longer in the same places because our bodies age and don’t have the same raw appeal after a while. Shunning someone has never made the shunnee appreciate the presence of the shunner.

The truth about it is, carrots and sticks is the most dangerous game. Carrots are perishable…The stick is another story.