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Bully Pulpiteers
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Ubiquitous
May 3, 2012, 8:09:27 PM5/3/12
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Anti-bullying activists are starting to resemble the bullies they
crusade against.
Bullies, as they are wont to do, have forced their way into everybody's
head.
In Cherry Hill, New Jersey, a distraught dad wired his autistic son,
catching educators calling him a "bastard" and laughing at him. The
father made headlines this week by demanding the district fire the
teacher as they did the aide. He wants the school to release their
names. "There are people asking me, 'How do I wire my kid?'"
The most talked about but least watched film of the year is Bully, which
has grossed $1.3 million in two weeks. The Motion Picture Association of
America initially bestowed an "R" rating, but Change.org, CNN's Anderson
Cooper, and celebrities Justin Bieber, Ellen DeGeneres, and Meryl Streep
hectored the ratings board to loosen standards. "The original ruling
prompted the aggressive campaign by the Weinstein Co., which is
releasing 'Bully,' to lower the R rating to PG-13," ABCNews.com reports.
The new rating means it is safe for overbearing teachers to compel
captive classrooms to watch the documentary.
MTV airs "Bully Beatdown," as if on a loop. The program provides
vicarious vengeance for victims when cage fighters beat up their
tormentors in front of a Roman gladiator-style crowd lusting for bully
blood.
Forty-nine states have submitted to pressure groups in codifying
anti-bullying legislation. The Department of Education features a
stopbullying.gov site, singling out Montana as the sole holdout. The
president has gone beyond the bully pulpit to support federal
anti-bullying legislation, which empowers Uncle Sam to pick on local
schools.
"We can't continue to legislate everything," Tennessee state
representative Jeremy Faison reasonably said in reference to a new
proposed anti-bullying law. He wondered if parents not instilling
self-esteem in children at home rather than bullies stripping them of it
at school were more culpable in youth suicides. The state's Democratic
Party called him a "disgrace," claiming that "of course a tall and burly
Faison doesn't see any problems with bullying." Predictably, the
browbeaten state representative apologized.
For a culture so big on irony it's ironic that we don't see the irony in
ourselves. Alas, bullies never recognize themselves as bullies. They
frequently imagine their victims as the bullies, which justifies the
agony they inflict. Hell hath no fury like an adult rectifying the
injustices inflicted in childhood.
Whether the bullying is real (the New Jersey teachers) or imagined (a
politician opposing legislation), those crusading against it often
descend into bullying, too. The worst bullies rationalize their bullying
as anti-bullying. People's behavior goes terribly wrong when they insist
they are in the right.
Particularly distasteful is the use of deceased young people to silence
dissent. Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi and Hadley, Massachusetts high
school student Phoebe Prince may have been people once but are now
iconic symbols wielded by demagogues. The post-Christian world makes
saints of suicide cases. The Old Church granted neither funerals nor
burials to those who ended their lives by ending their lives. Surely
there is a happy (unhappy?) medium between venerating one who has done
something so horrible and further victimizing one who is also,
ultimately, a victim.
All witch hunts are exercises in group bullying. They not only make it
cool to terrorize the individual bucking the group, they make it
obligatory. When Hollywood, the president, and cable news anchors gang
up on bullies, it's hard not to root for the underdog.
It's easy to take on bullies in the abstract. They pose no threat to hit
back. They make an easy mark.
What's difficult is taking them on when they stare you in the face. The
promoted method, snitching -- whether to a teacher or a policeman -- has
traditionally been a surefire way to court, not repel, intimidation. A
culture that is litigious, force-phobic, averse to family-sized
families, and monitors children the way the Stasi spied on writers makes
taboo the most effective methods of dealing with a ruffian: a hard punch
in the face or an older brother. Thus does our passive-aggressive
culture make bullying harder for adults to detect and for kids to
combat.
"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does
not become a monster," Friedrich Nietzsche warned. "And if you gaze long
enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."
Or, guard against becoming a bully when you crusade against them.
--
"If Barack Obama isn't careful, he will become the Jimmy Carter of the
21st century."
crusade against.
Bullies, as they are wont to do, have forced their way into everybody's
head.
In Cherry Hill, New Jersey, a distraught dad wired his autistic son,
catching educators calling him a "bastard" and laughing at him. The
father made headlines this week by demanding the district fire the
teacher as they did the aide. He wants the school to release their
names. "There are people asking me, 'How do I wire my kid?'"
The most talked about but least watched film of the year is Bully, which
has grossed $1.3 million in two weeks. The Motion Picture Association of
America initially bestowed an "R" rating, but Change.org, CNN's Anderson
Cooper, and celebrities Justin Bieber, Ellen DeGeneres, and Meryl Streep
hectored the ratings board to loosen standards. "The original ruling
prompted the aggressive campaign by the Weinstein Co., which is
releasing 'Bully,' to lower the R rating to PG-13," ABCNews.com reports.
The new rating means it is safe for overbearing teachers to compel
captive classrooms to watch the documentary.
MTV airs "Bully Beatdown," as if on a loop. The program provides
vicarious vengeance for victims when cage fighters beat up their
tormentors in front of a Roman gladiator-style crowd lusting for bully
blood.
Forty-nine states have submitted to pressure groups in codifying
anti-bullying legislation. The Department of Education features a
stopbullying.gov site, singling out Montana as the sole holdout. The
president has gone beyond the bully pulpit to support federal
anti-bullying legislation, which empowers Uncle Sam to pick on local
schools.
"We can't continue to legislate everything," Tennessee state
representative Jeremy Faison reasonably said in reference to a new
proposed anti-bullying law. He wondered if parents not instilling
self-esteem in children at home rather than bullies stripping them of it
at school were more culpable in youth suicides. The state's Democratic
Party called him a "disgrace," claiming that "of course a tall and burly
Faison doesn't see any problems with bullying." Predictably, the
browbeaten state representative apologized.
For a culture so big on irony it's ironic that we don't see the irony in
ourselves. Alas, bullies never recognize themselves as bullies. They
frequently imagine their victims as the bullies, which justifies the
agony they inflict. Hell hath no fury like an adult rectifying the
injustices inflicted in childhood.
Whether the bullying is real (the New Jersey teachers) or imagined (a
politician opposing legislation), those crusading against it often
descend into bullying, too. The worst bullies rationalize their bullying
as anti-bullying. People's behavior goes terribly wrong when they insist
they are in the right.
Particularly distasteful is the use of deceased young people to silence
dissent. Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi and Hadley, Massachusetts high
school student Phoebe Prince may have been people once but are now
iconic symbols wielded by demagogues. The post-Christian world makes
saints of suicide cases. The Old Church granted neither funerals nor
burials to those who ended their lives by ending their lives. Surely
there is a happy (unhappy?) medium between venerating one who has done
something so horrible and further victimizing one who is also,
ultimately, a victim.
All witch hunts are exercises in group bullying. They not only make it
cool to terrorize the individual bucking the group, they make it
obligatory. When Hollywood, the president, and cable news anchors gang
up on bullies, it's hard not to root for the underdog.
It's easy to take on bullies in the abstract. They pose no threat to hit
back. They make an easy mark.
What's difficult is taking them on when they stare you in the face. The
promoted method, snitching -- whether to a teacher or a policeman -- has
traditionally been a surefire way to court, not repel, intimidation. A
culture that is litigious, force-phobic, averse to family-sized
families, and monitors children the way the Stasi spied on writers makes
taboo the most effective methods of dealing with a ruffian: a hard punch
in the face or an older brother. Thus does our passive-aggressive
culture make bullying harder for adults to detect and for kids to
combat.
"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does
not become a monster," Friedrich Nietzsche warned. "And if you gaze long
enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."
Or, guard against becoming a bully when you crusade against them.
--
"If Barack Obama isn't careful, he will become the Jimmy Carter of the
21st century."
Tom
May 3, 2012, 10:07:46 PM5/3/12
to
And you posted this plagiarized, off-topic article here because?
Tom
Tom
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