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Speaking as someone who was a teen in the 80's in the United States: The only way to stop a school bully (a person who has learned to use force for personal gai
by pmarreck 5y ago
Speaking as someone who was a teen in the 80's in the United States: The only way to stop a school bully (a person who has learned to use force for personal gain) is with a bigger "bully" (another stronger student, or an administrator who has more force). Therein lies the rub: Might makes right. There's no stable system of sheep because the most wolf-like of them will always emerge to take advantage of the others. You see this in behavior across species, there's like an "aggression equilibrium"; too many wolves result in too much bloodshed; too few and a single wolf obtains an outsize share of resources/social/reproductive capital, or what have you (and thus perpetuates their aggressive genes). Witness every communist system put into place so far: What was envisioned was a system of equals, but nature abhors a vacuum so what you end up getting is a bunch of people considered equals, and a dictator above them all.
And truly, I learned this lesson early on only because of bullying (towards me): The school administration did nothing. The teachers did nothing. I was left to fend for myself... and this is what I learned: If you screw up the courage to stand up to a bully ("display your readiness to use force"), they will often back down. In some cases they will ONLY back down if you resort to physicality (the proverbial "fist to the face"). I learned this lesson again and again- I've had my wrist broken by a bully, but at least he never messed with me again. And as an adult, I've applied this, not in the direct use of force but in the fact that your will is what counts- when fighting traffic tickets, it's you vs. the system.
It shouldn't be surprising that 100% of the bullies I knew (who because I'm a peaceable sort, I actually friended on FB years later) became Republicans. But some of them also became leaders in various things.
My main bully, however, was apparently a troubled sort himself, and ended up taking a shotgun to his own head in front of his family. Spent a week in the ICU before giving up the ghost. Before this happened, I randomly ran into him at a bar. I didn't recognize him at first because he had gained a lot of weight, but one look in the eyes (the eyes always contain the identity of the individual when nothing else does, for some reason) and he immediately said "Let me buy you a beer". I accepted.
- MrJohz 5y agoOn the other hand, speaking as someone who was a teen in the 00s in the UK, I never found that sort of "might makes right" solution worked - when I was violent, I was mocked for my temper, and when I was peaceful I was mocked for my lack of temper. What ultimately helped was (a) growing a person, and recognising that the people I was choosing to hang out with were often either bullies, or enabling the bullies; and (b) relocating to a new school where I could redefine myself in a way that I was more comfortable with.
- pmarreck 5y agoSchool relocation can go in either direction. One of the worst things my parents (unknowingly at the time) did was move our family when I was turning 12. We had just left a parochial school where I was doing fine both academically and socially, and then... a (good) public school with people I never met. All the other dudes had already established "tacit dominance hierarchies" or whatever, and here I come in and mess the whole thing up (another thing that didn't help was the merging of 2 schools into 1 in 7th grade, apparently causing EVERY guy (ok many guys, but not me) to enter "test the other person's mettle mode"). Junior high was HELL as a result. I was a super-late bloomer (or that is what they used to call it; what actually happened in reality is that I had testosterone secretion timing issues and my parents were too frugal to take me to a doctor) and that didn't help either. I remember 1 fight in grade school, a guy shorter than me picked a fight with me, next thing I know there's a circle of people around us jeering, and me being the nonviolent type managed to snatch him into a headlock and give him a "noogie" (rubbing knuckles on the person's scalp which hurts like a bitch but does no harm) and he said "mercy" pretty quick and I helped him off the floor- I was pretty proud of that resolution... but it WAS ultimately the application of a form of (counter)force.