bullies

My recent time working at a prison has me thinking about bullies. As well as several journal-like entries from readers to a magazine (The Sun) on bullies.

I see lots of bullying behavior to this day. From correctional officers, from inmates, police officers, teenagers, children to each other. I have some "bully" of my own that I can remember as a kid, particularly with my siblings - me as the oldest one. I think most of us can summon at least a memory or two where we acted bully-like.

I see bullying too in less-obvious places: parents with their kids, teachers towards their students or each other, a nurse on a telephone. What is it that causes us to be mean, to put down another person, to be violent to them even in subtle words and looks?

Part of it is the animal-like hierarchical tendency. This notion we have in our head that some of us are higher than others. Society encourages it everywhere - boss-employee, officer-prisoner, teacher-student, parent-child, older-younger, senior-amateur, husband-wife, wife-husband, us-them.... this separation, which we sometimes try to enforce in manipulative ways. Or ways that are outside of our values, if we thought about it.

Where is the bully in me? What can I do to bring awareness to my unawareness?