Bully for Conformity

As coverage on local and national news alike would suggest, it would seem that the subject of bulling is finally being taken seriously in our country, which I can only take as a positive development. Amongst all the talk about concerned school administrators on the one hand and indifferent ones on the other, one impression of the phenomena that I have long noted has, as far as I can tell, not been discussed at all.

That is, in short, the idea that "bullies" are in many cases not the enemies of the school administration but, in fact, its tools. When I was in high school, at least half of the bullies were varsity athletes, "good kids" that got a pass from teachers/administrators/coaches. A number of the very worst bullies were also the kids of teachers or school employees, and, even when their parents were explicitly told what their kids were doing, they did nothing to intervene. Bullying occurred not at the hands of kids who had been abused themselves, etc. (it is too nice to think that they might have been), but rather by kids who were being give a pass on their behavior.

These bullies were fully aligned with the power structure and harassed and menaced others in proportion to the extent that they were outsiders. Some of them clearly even saw themselves as little policemen, trying to stamp out disorder in the society in which they were favored. The more people were like everyone else, the less likely they were to be bullied themselves. One of the more popular songs was Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall," and kids sang the lyrics to it knowing exactly what they meant ... but they were damn sure to sing them when, where, and how they were supposed to.

So, bullying probably brings to mind different images to most of us -- but I would suggest that in some cases it should bring to mind the idea of the order, conformity, and homogeneity it is meant to encourage.