It is little wonder that we have so many bullies in school because there exists in our society many adult bullies. Grown people who have nothing to do but interfere in the business of others and be self-righteous about it.
Tantamount among the many reasons for the birth of adult bullies is how women live their lives and are labelled. The funny thing is many of those bullies are women who at one stage of their lives were living the same kind of life, perhaps in a diminished or greater capacity, but nevertheless would have had the very same labels attached to them.
It is incredulous that our history of coming from a patriarchal society where women were little more than chattel, something to be owned by men, that there are those who engage in this kind of outrage to other women. Not to mention the men and their behaviours who have daughters and do not know how they are going to turn out, or they have already displayed or are right now displaying some of those behaviours they are so self-righteous about.
Many of us had children out of wedlock and had a fairly easy time of it because it eventually became acceptable. It did not matter anymore in the moral spectrum especially after we got married, either to the child’s father or someone else. Once we found a man to legalize (moralize?) us, it became okay.
In this way, we hold to vestiges of patriarchy, and fuel the thinking of some men to continue believing they have rights over every woman (because it seems to me that that was the collective thought pattern of patriarchal men).
Since we all, or most of us, love to claim kinship with the teachings of the Bible, it still teaches that fornication is a sin in which many of us love to indulge, and I say this knowing there are those who are not on a Biblical path which is their right, we all have different paths. There are others who are on a Biblical path, which is also their right and I believe the majority of us are somewhere in the middle, one foot on each road.
We each need to know which path we are on and accept who we are so we do not end up bullying others to be who we want them to be. Focus instead on who we are and which path we are on and if we have a foot on each path we have to be especially focused because up ahead is a bend going at right angles to each other and to end up spread-eagled is not a desire we should entertain.
Bullying seems to have a huge following; many seem to be attracted to that bandwagon. Thankfully, I am no waggonist. I hold my own. I do not care for bullies and I have had many encounters with them. There always seem to be someone wanting to tell me who to be, while they struggle with their own acceptance. They spend their lives speaking badly of people, laughing at the downfall of others … anything to distract them from seeing who they really are.
Yo … that’s a sad, sad thing!
Apart from being self-righteous, bullies have a way of turning the tables. Yes, they know how to make it seem that you were the first offender and turn you into public enemy number one. They make everything you do be about them, like you are always on the attack even when you do not see them or have them anywhere in your thoughts. You are going about your business and bam … it is something to do with them.
When we are faced with bullies and it somehow seems we have no way to shake them then we have to invite the legal system into our daily lives by filing harassment lawsuits because every individual has a right to enjoy peace and quiet contentment in the place he or she inhabits.
Prima facie, most bullies are selfish enough to want to be ‘contented’ while they make others’ lives miserable. However, my interpretation of that is they are so miserable they try to make others just as miserable as they are and I think usually that’s the case.
In this so-called Christian country, a few adult bullies that I have encountered happen to claim that status. Whether or not they have a right to that claim, let the Master decide. We all have to give individual accounts on the day of reckoning.
Jesus said, “No man cometh unto the father but by me.”
That’s who I am answerable to.