I wrote the following post going on two years ago. The kernel of it started because of an episode between two Miami Dolphin football players. Seems like it is still relevant what with what is going on in the current political climate:

I was watching television last night, go figure, when I saw a blurb about two Miami Dolphin football players and bullying.  It got me thinking about our culture yet once again.  Like I don’t think about our culture enough.  Regardless, I started researching bullying.  First by thinking back to my upbringing, and then what my kids went through as they were growing up, and finally hit the internet.

In my opinion, we have a very screwed up view of bullying in this country.  On the one hand we look at some bullying as almost a rite of passage, poo-pooing it as something that teaches kids how to manage adversity.  Then we have the issue of kids killing themselves because of how they are treated at school, and on social media.

The statistics of bullying and suicide are horrifying.  Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year, according to the CDC. For every suicide among young people, there are at least 100 suicide attempts. Over 14 percent of high school students have considered suicide, and almost 7 percent have attempted it.  Bully victims are between 2 to 9 times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims, according to studies by Yale University.

Every school I know of has a anti-bullying policy.  And we continue to struggle with bullying, and its after effects.  There is something in each one of us that is dark, dank, and evil.  There is something that thinks it is ok to find weakness and stomp on it.  That is our culture.  Survival of the fittest.

Bullying is rampant in our society.  In politics, in our schools, in our work place.  Bullying in school is about pushing the little kids around or some other group perceived as weaker than you.  In politics it is about trying to make your opponent look bad.  If you can make your opponent look like a pedophile, a wife abuser, or a substance abuser all the better.  In the work place, bullying takes the form of making your victim look incompetent, or ineffective.

Bullying is like any other form of abuse.  It is about power.  As the song goes “the strong doing what they will, and the weak suffering what they must.”  Americans love power.  We want to be perceived as being the prettiest, most handsome, richest, and whatever cool things you can think of.  And we seem to be willing, for the most part, to do whatever we have to to attain our goals.  Bullying is a part of us, a part of our culture.  The only way we can change it is to change ourselves.