Sending a Message to the Right
For four years Bill received regular kicks to the balls by Sam's right boot. At the end of the four years he was given a choice: four more years of getting booted in the groin by the right foot, or four years by the left. Bill could have said he'd accept neither. If he was going to get booted in the balls anyway, no matter which boot he chose, he wouldn't choose either. Why should he be a party to his own ball-crushing? Instead, so angry was he at Sam's right boot for four years of intolerable blows -- and charmed by the argument that the left boot was the only realistic alternative, and that the right boot really needed to be sent a message -- he decided he'd get even by choosing Sam's left boot this time. Maybe it would be marginally better. Today, crouched over in pain, he feebly raises his right fist in victory. "I showed that right boot a thing or two!"