The Bully
School yard bullying has been a headline getter for the last few years, especially since the Tina Fey movie Mean Girls highlighted the issue. Rockstar, the makers of Grand Theft Auto, came up with a game. There were articles in the weekly news magazines and on cable television and everyone was upset that the bullies had arrived on America's playground.
Growing up, I wasn't much for the popular side of the school yard. There were a good number of altercations between me and the bullies. Luckily though, I've always been rather tall and big and for the most part quite quickly put an end to those little squabbles. For the most part, these things were settled by the Bully and the Victim.
School officials never really want to get involved. There was a great deal of apathy on the part of the teachers in my elementary school, a bit of the 'boys will be boys' attitude. Perhaps things are a bit different on the school yard today, but I seriously have my doubts.
Part of this apathy is probably the fact that school teachers in this country are generally paid too little to care about anything other than the curriculum. Why should they care if a few ten year olds want to pick on each other? They don't. But that's not really what's at issue. The bigger issue is that society likes Bullies, that society wants Bullies, and in fact even encourages Bullying.
Society really likes the idea of bullies because bullies reinforce the authority of society's norms. Specifically, bullies encourage folks to conform to societies, and without that conformity, society's leadership would be powerless.
Bullies never pick on the kids that act like they act, do what they tell them to do, or wear what they tell them to wear. Bullies pick on the different kid, the kid with different shoes or different shirt or different name. The victims in this case learn to be like everyone else. Its much easier, particularly is a child, to blend in than it is to stand up to bullying or to ignore it (the advice frequently given to me when growing up). Society really likes it when people conform, and bullying is a method for producing conformity.
Further, bullying leads people to think the same way and to do as they are told. Bullies tell their peers to do something or think something. Anyone who disagrees with the Bully quickly becomes the victim and the target for the Bully's rage. Thus victims and non-victims alike quickly learn not to question authority or risk getting made fun of. Bullying is a tool that keeps members of society from question authority because the social lesson is "do as you are told, or else you will be bullied."
Society embraces bullying so much, we've come to expect it even as adults. Adult bullies are all around us. They are the over eager police who thinks a gun and badge means he can harass people, they are the driver of the sport utility vehicles, they are the people who cut queues at the bank or the grocery store. Society accepts these people because Society likes bullying.
Bullying is a tool society has embraced to socialize children into obeying authority Often the victims of bullying are the free thinkers, those who question authority, the philosophers, the artists. As long as there are those who question authority, society will produce bullies to quiet the free thinkers.
Growing up, I wasn't much for the popular side of the school yard. There were a good number of altercations between me and the bullies. Luckily though, I've always been rather tall and big and for the most part quite quickly put an end to those little squabbles. For the most part, these things were settled by the Bully and the Victim.
School officials never really want to get involved. There was a great deal of apathy on the part of the teachers in my elementary school, a bit of the 'boys will be boys' attitude. Perhaps things are a bit different on the school yard today, but I seriously have my doubts.
Part of this apathy is probably the fact that school teachers in this country are generally paid too little to care about anything other than the curriculum. Why should they care if a few ten year olds want to pick on each other? They don't. But that's not really what's at issue. The bigger issue is that society likes Bullies, that society wants Bullies, and in fact even encourages Bullying.
Society really likes the idea of bullies because bullies reinforce the authority of society's norms. Specifically, bullies encourage folks to conform to societies, and without that conformity, society's leadership would be powerless.
Bullies never pick on the kids that act like they act, do what they tell them to do, or wear what they tell them to wear. Bullies pick on the different kid, the kid with different shoes or different shirt or different name. The victims in this case learn to be like everyone else. Its much easier, particularly is a child, to blend in than it is to stand up to bullying or to ignore it (the advice frequently given to me when growing up). Society really likes it when people conform, and bullying is a method for producing conformity.
Further, bullying leads people to think the same way and to do as they are told. Bullies tell their peers to do something or think something. Anyone who disagrees with the Bully quickly becomes the victim and the target for the Bully's rage. Thus victims and non-victims alike quickly learn not to question authority or risk getting made fun of. Bullying is a tool that keeps members of society from question authority because the social lesson is "do as you are told, or else you will be bullied."
Society embraces bullying so much, we've come to expect it even as adults. Adult bullies are all around us. They are the over eager police who thinks a gun and badge means he can harass people, they are the driver of the sport utility vehicles, they are the people who cut queues at the bank or the grocery store. Society accepts these people because Society likes bullying.
Bullying is a tool society has embraced to socialize children into obeying authority Often the victims of bullying are the free thinkers, those who question authority, the philosophers, the artists. As long as there are those who question authority, society will produce bullies to quiet the free thinkers.
Labels: Society
2 Comments:
Very good post. Its another great example of how society controls our behavior. Bowling for soup has a song called "High School Never Ends." The same people that were bullies in school seem to become supervisors, cops, and politicians.
AC
I think also that secretly everyone wants to be a bully themselves so they accept that other people are on the hope that one day they too will be. Sort in the same way that everyone expects one day to be famous or wealthy.
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