Word of the Day: Tit for tat

Hurting each other tit for tat never works out for the best.

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Ah, revenge is sweet, isn’t it?

The problem is that revenge doesn’t often stop at one incident.

Usually, it develops into a tit-for-tat exchange that can continue without end.

A while ago, I wrote a post about one-upmanship.

One-upmanship is all about doing something better, bigger or faster than someone else.

A tit-for-tat exchange differs from one-upmanship in one way.

When we get into a tit-for-tat exchange, we respond to what someone has done to us by doing the same thing back to them.

This happens between kids all the time.

One kid hits another for colouring in her colouring book.

Now, the overly artistic kid has to respond in kind.

It doesn’t stop there, however.

A cycle of retaliation is quickly started and doesn’t end until Mom or Dad has a few words to say.

This intervention goes to show that a more powerful third party can often prevent a tit-for-tat situation from getting out of hand.

However, these cases are not limited to kids and quarrels about colouring books.

Nowadays, we have a perfect example of tit-for-tat going on between the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China.

These countries are currently involved in a tit-for-tat trade war.

The US imposes 16 billion dollars in tariffs on Chinese goods, and China imposes 16 billion dollars in duties on American products.

And repeat and repeat and repeat.

The problem is that there isn’t a more powerful third party to intervene and say a few words.

This is why I am introducing tit for tat today.

You may have to break up your kids when they start hitting each other tit for tat this evening.

Then, later on, you’ll have to listen to the news describing the latest tit-for-tat retaliation between the US and China.

Or the US and Canada.

Or the US and Europe.

Or the US and Japan.

Or the US and…

This post is understandable by someone with at least an 8th-grade education (age 13 – 14).

The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.