On Bullying

 

Bullish About Bullying

  I associate the word "bullying" with schoolyards, beaches and childhood, but now the word is everywhere and even hordes of adults are affected by it.  I was going to do a post on the subject, but am giving up. There is so much baloney about bullying, I feel too intimidated (bullied) to tackle it. What I will do is simply prove to you that the word is overused by rounding up some recent articles about it and displaying them. I will then offer my usual contrarian bit. But, given that many, many people are worried about bullying, I also will offer sources to soothe them, with the hopes that they won't bully me for being so insensitive about a topic that is terrifying.

Recent Headlines (All are real and recent.)

Sunak Facing Calls to Sack Gavin Williamson Over Bullying Allegations

Strike Shows Ford's School Bully Strategy

The Cancel Culture is an Extension of Bullying, says Shruti [India]

Abusive Bullying’ of Fish Hoek High School Students Condemned [South Africa]

Bullying of Blacks Takes a Toll on Mental Health

Racist Bullying Shook a Small US Town. Then Came the Bomb Threats

Hazing, Harassment, Bullying Allegations Leveled Against Hockey Organization Okanagan HC

Nearly 30 per cent of Hospital BME Staff Suffer Harassment, Bullying or Abuse

An Outraged Mother Enters the Classroom to Defend Her Son From Bullying: She Asks Her Son Who was Bullying Him and Beats Up His Classmate.

Head Banned From Classroom for Allowing Her ‘Rude and Controlling’ Teacher Husband to Bully Staff in Same School

Make Forces Chiefs Liable for Bullying

Asda Accused of ‘Bullying Workers’ Who Speak Out Over Pay Dispute by Unions

Government Launches Campaign to Identify Warning Signs Against Bullying [Latin America]

Homeless Man Accuses Byron Bay Council Workers of 'Bullying' After They Slap Him With $600 Fine for Filling His Water Tank up in a 'No Stopping' Bay

Recent Article Titles From the Harvard Business Review

[This was when I realized the subject was a serious one and decided to abandon it.]

How Bullying Manifests at Work — and How to Stop It

Workplace Bullying Taxonomy

Bullying Is a Confidence Game

Diagnose and Eliminate Workplace Bullying

Eating Their Cake And Everyone Else's Cake, Too: Resources As The Main Ingredient To Stop Workplace Bullying

Gordon Brown's Leadership, Passionate or Bullying?

The Contrarian Part

   I guess I shouldn't be surprised given that now people have to be warned in advance of reading anything that may be harmful and even "violent", and that students living in the safest enclaves (campuses) on the continent need spaces within them that are even safer. Perhaps people used to be tougher and when they were bullied, somehow got over it.

  As proof I offer this passage. It describes the childhood experience of an American boy who found himself in Saskatchewan in the early part the last century and it includes and anti-American ditty that those of you who are anti-American will appreciate. 

"The first year in Eastend was a chaos of experiences, good and bad. I caught lice from the half-Indian kids I played with and was fiercely shampooed with kerosene. I learned dirty words and dirty songs from the children of railroad construction workers and from Z-X cowpunchers. With other boys, I was induced to ride calves and lured into “shit fights” with wet cow manure in the Z-X corrals. Then or later I learned to dog-paddle, first in the irrigation ditch, later in the river, and I fished for suckers in the deep holes of the bends, and followed trails through willows that felt like authentic wilderness. Then or later we put .22 cartridges or blasting caps on the tracks ahead of approaching handcars or speeders, and once we got satisfactorily chased by the gandy dancers of the section crew. Around Christmas we all watched the first soldiers go off to the war, and then and afterward we had trouble with the Canadian kids who said the United States was too yellow to get into the fight. They had a song for us:

Here’s to the American eagle

He flies over mountain and ditch

But, we don’t want the turd of your goddam bird

You American son of a bitch.

   My brother, who was big for his age, and tough, fought every kid his size, and some bigger, in defense of America’s honor. But we were ashamed, and we got an instructive taste of how it felt to be disliked for tribal affiliations that we hadn’t really known we had.”

From: “Finding the Place: A Migrant Childhood,” in Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs; Living and Writing in the West, Wallace Stegner.

The Anti-Bullying Business

   A good career can be found in the industry that has developed to help you fight off all the bullies. There is an Anti-Bullying Day  and next week is Anti- Bullying Week in England and even Wales (where I did think people were tougher.) For help in Canada see Bullying Canada and even in Saskatchewan (where they used to be tougher.)

Post Script:

  Loyal readers will know that I did to a post about Headlines, some of which were spurious, but the ones above are real. Given that I abandoned this subject, I didn't want to spend more time providing the entire source.