During the Vietnam war, Dow Chemical manufactured napalm that was dropped on Vietnamese and their villages. I suggested that instead of dropping napalm, the US should be dropping huge sheets of Saran Wrap, also manufactured by Dow. That way the enemy combatants would become incapacitated by the Saran Wrap and the US could capture and hold them instead of killing large numbers of Vietnamese. And Dow would still earn profits.
I know this is a joke, however various societies at certain points have developed pseudo-war events to settle things.
One could argue that the era of European Warfare where people lined up far away and shot single bullet muskets at each other until one side dispersed was kind of like this.
China and India have mutually agreed to beat each other with sticks instead of shooting each other on the India/China border.
African tribes in Southern Africa in pre-colonial times would line up and throw spears just out of throwing range, the side that clearly had less spears and men would retreat, agreeing to cede territory. That is until the Zulus just decided to take drugs and hack people to bits with close range weapons.
Your idea is not actually half bad if everyone agrees. "War" can be anything, it can be performative. The issue is that when someone gets tired of the status quo they break the established rules and take a no-holds-bar approach. Then you have one side negotiating silly string rules with an international body the aggressor doesn't abide by and eventually both sides have to abandon silly string all together as a weapon of war or face an actual existential threat.
I could see a future where remote control drones fought other remote controlled drones in some sort of futuristic war and the outcome was about separating resources rather than depleting lives. I could see the world settling into that. It's not much different than silly string(if silly string was extremely expensive.) however someone at some point who doesn't have the time or money for a drone army will just break the rules and shock the world with some barbaric alternative combat method that actually involves death.
Yeah, but then someone will decide not to follow the rules, and the other side will be caught from behind (pun intended) and be de-pantsed and unable to properly defend themselves because they’re busy pulling up their trousers. What then?
During the Vietnam war, Dow Chemical manufactured napalm that was dropped on Vietnamese and their villages. I suggested that instead of dropping napalm, the US should be dropping huge sheets of Saran Wrap, also manufactured by Dow. That way the enemy combatants would become incapacitated by the Saran Wrap and the US could capture and hold them instead of killing large numbers of Vietnamese. And Dow would still earn profits.
That's great!
I know this is a joke, however various societies at certain points have developed pseudo-war events to settle things.
One could argue that the era of European Warfare where people lined up far away and shot single bullet muskets at each other until one side dispersed was kind of like this.
China and India have mutually agreed to beat each other with sticks instead of shooting each other on the India/China border.
African tribes in Southern Africa in pre-colonial times would line up and throw spears just out of throwing range, the side that clearly had less spears and men would retreat, agreeing to cede territory. That is until the Zulus just decided to take drugs and hack people to bits with close range weapons.
Your idea is not actually half bad if everyone agrees. "War" can be anything, it can be performative. The issue is that when someone gets tired of the status quo they break the established rules and take a no-holds-bar approach. Then you have one side negotiating silly string rules with an international body the aggressor doesn't abide by and eventually both sides have to abandon silly string all together as a weapon of war or face an actual existential threat.
I could see a future where remote control drones fought other remote controlled drones in some sort of futuristic war and the outcome was about separating resources rather than depleting lives. I could see the world settling into that. It's not much different than silly string(if silly string was extremely expensive.) however someone at some point who doesn't have the time or money for a drone army will just break the rules and shock the world with some barbaric alternative combat method that actually involves death.
Yeah, but then someone will decide not to follow the rules, and the other side will be caught from behind (pun intended) and be de-pantsed and unable to properly defend themselves because they’re busy pulling up their trousers. What then?
Escalated the silly string was by introducing the underhanded tactic of pantsing their opponent. Interesting.