Ions

‘Self-determination,’ one of them insisted. ‘Arbitration!’ cried another.

‘Co-operation?’ suggested the mildest of the party.

‘Confiscation!’ answered an uncompromising female.

I, too, became slightly intoxicated by the sound of these vocables. And were they not the cure for all our ills?

‘Inoculation!’ I chimed in. ‘Transubstantiation, Alliteration, Inundation, Flagellation and Afforestation!’