Society's golden rule: might makes right

We profess to detest bullies, but in fact they "rule"

The Straight Goods Cyber Forum
with Larry Solway

Commentary:

  The day after I wrote my first draft of this commentary, I read John Miller's stunning piece in SG about the arrogance of the Aspers. John referred to them as "bullies". So with apologies to John Miller - here goes.
  I've been thinking a lot about bullying lately, and wondering if there is any civility left in society. Or was there any to begin with?
  Thinking a lot about bullying lately, maybe after reading about how helpless a school in Halton seems to be in protecting one of their students. Bullying is not new to schools. There is an entire history of it, from Tom Brown's School Days and the "hazing" of the younger kids. But the events at the school in Halton have led the victim's parents to sue. I hope they prevail. The taunting and name-calling of this poor boy has been relentless. It was so bad for his sister that the parents claim that is why she quit school. But bullies are not without honour. We profess to detest them but in fact they "rule". The operative word these days. If anything works, it "rules".
  Been thinking a lot about bullying these days when I look at the White House. It has been a cliché that when the President, any President, speaks he is using what media call a "bully pulpit". George Bush, perhaps harsher than the rest, but just another elected bully, insists that you are either for him or against him. I am not unconvinced that the death visited by one American pilot on Canadians in Afghanistan isn't part of the same thing. When you have the biggest guns you make the biggest noise. When you are a pilot in the U.S. Air Force, perhaps the culture dictates that you display your might wherever possible. Far-fetched? Perhaps.
  I've think I started musing about bullying a few days ago when I was bullied on the highway. Turning off one major expressway to another I was mercilessly tailgated by a guy in a tough, mean, testosterone-laden Jeep. I waved my arm in disgust. He pulled alongside me and gave me the finger. That one Neanderthal is only a symptom of the bullying promoted by the bigger, tougher, faster, heavier car craze. Why else would millions of otherwise sanguine folks want to buy a road bully? Why would Cadillac start to spend millions to push their S.U.V model with all the toys, including an engine powered far beyond the simple needs of transportation and offers its proud users a marque that identifies them as aristocracy? It identifies them as road bullies. And millions have signed on.
  Finally, I think again about bullying when I see that our Prime Minister has bullied his caucus and blustered his way into justification of his continued tenure.
  I also think about the greatest political bully of them all, the unlamented Premier Mike Harris who has declined into the sunset while hundreds of thousands of helpless victims still languish despite the shift toward the centrism of Ernie Eves.
  Bullies are bullies because they have the power to be. When I was a boy at school, I was small and weak and a few years younger than my classmates. Every day at school started with anxiety. Who would bully me today? Who would take me into the boy's lav and bend me double and put me into the paper wastebasket? Who would offer to fight me knowing the outcome of the fight?
  Too often the bullies not only have the weight but they have a kind of perverted acceptance. They are often the ones who are "in". They move in crowds of others who cheer their exploits. The exploits are fear and pain directed toward the helpless nerd, the outsider, and the one who is smaller or different. But isn't that what society has become all about?

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