The calendar says August 17 is a Monday, a long weekend for San Martín Day 1. For the rational mind, this is a logistical fact: three days to plan an asado, a trip to the coast, a quiet escape from the city. But the rational mind, as Thomas Erikson would remind us, is not the only thing in the room. In his latest book, Surrounded by Psychopaths, Erikson estimates that between 2% and 4% of the global population—some 250 million people—meet the clinical criteria for psychopathy 3. That means, statistically, on your three-day break, you will encounter them. At the toll booth. At the beach parador. At the parrilla where you order a vacío and the waiter brings you a milanesa.
The advice from Erikson is simple: flee, don't fight manipulation 3. Do not engage. Do not try to reason. Just walk away. This is sound counsel, but it assumes you have the physical capacity to flee. Consider the case of Tokyo, a black Labrador who was halfway up Ben Nevis, the UK's highest mountain, when she collapsed after a suspected ingestion of discarded cannabis 4. Her owner, Christina Bluhme, watched as the dog lost the use of her legs and drifted in and out of consciousness. The Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team had to stretcher the animal down the mountain 4. Tokyo could not flee. She could not fight. She could only be carried.
This is the texture of modern life: we plan our long weekends, we calculate our electricity bills—up €8.68 per month in July and August, a 40% spike in consumption 2—and we imagine a clean, controlled experience. But the world is full of discarded cannabis on mountain paths and people who, by clinical definition, lack empathy. The emerging trend in travel is called emoturismo: emotional tourism, where the traveler seeks experiences that touch the heart, connect with the five senses, and offer profound connection, moving away from mass tourism 5. It is a beautiful idea. But no one tells you that the heart can be touched by a dog on a stretcher, or by the quiet dread of realizing the person smiling at you across the table may be part of that 2% to 4%.
The unresolved question is not whether to flee or fight. It is whether we can still enjoy the long weekend knowing that the world is, at every altitude, a place of unpredictable chemistry—both chemical and human. The consequence that matters: you will go to the mountains or the coast, you will pay the higher bill, and you will meet someone. The only honest editorial judgment is this: carry water for the dog, and keep your eyes open for the psychopath. The rest is just a Monday off.