Bullying: An Inconveniently Truthful Perspective

Firstly, an acknowledgement: the author of this BLOG acknowledges the phrase "inconvenient truth" to be originally from the mind of Albert Gore Jr. Regardless of what we may think of the particular ideas and claims of Mr. Gore, at least the point is well-taken that in a supposed land of the free and home of the brave, there are certain truths which must be publicly enunciated, despite their inconvenience and incongruity to our usual predilections.

In recent years, government officials at all levels have become gravely concerned with this issue as relating to our schools. The author of this BLOG remembers being a victim of bullying himself while in school approximately fifty years ago.

Why do young people of adolescent age bully one another? The author of this BLOG suggests the answer to be that the outward physical projection of power onto people is glorified by society-at-large: politicians often make self-aggrandizing power grabs to subjugate the citienry; while in sports, individuals and teams engage in contests of strength and violence in order to gain social prestige at the expense of parties they defeat in such contests. Indeed, the American national ethos was truthfully expressed by former President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal, when he said, "First you plunge your knife into your enemy, and then you twist!"

In a word, hapless adolescents are merely following the example set for them by older adults. The only difference is that older adult bullying is given the more respectable euphemism called government. To govern is to bully: both require use of physical force and violence--or threat of the same--to coerce citizens to comply with the wishes of stronger entities and/or parties initiating this use of physical violence. "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely", wrote Lord Acton. During the era of the American military involvement in the Viet Nam war, then-U.S. Senator James William Fulbright wrote a book called "The Arrogance Of Power". But why war? The Bible scripture of James 4:1-3 explains the answer: men are usually motivated to war by pride, greed, envy and lustful desire. But these motives are usually disguised under pretext of altruism, patriotism and humanitarian benificence. Aggressor nations always claim to be liberating the peoples and nations they invade from some wicked evil or another. Likewise, the school bully will usually claim some virtuous intent for his actions, as a self-appointed vanguard of noble rectitude. Both the religious and the anti-religious share equal culpability in trying to "change the socio-political order for the better". Similarly, the school bully purports to "teach somebody else a lesson" towards an allegedly-higher good.

Yes, the inclination to bully is written deeply into the human psyche. This blogger remembers well one version of the famous movie "West Side Story" which he applauds. Here was a story of love and romance, against a back-drop of teen-age gang war between two rival gangs--the Jets and the Sharks--war which resulted in the pointless and tragic deaths of three young men. At the conclusion of this version of the movie, one police officer comments on the silly frivolities and moral recklessness of youth. But his colleague retorts, "Yeah, but are we any better?" Then the camera focuses on a newspaper at the local news stand. Its headlines read, "Four Hundred More American Troops Die In Viet Nam This Week".

-LKM