Thursday, March 17, 2011

School is War

I think just about everyone can remember some period in their childhood when they were beset by bullies. If that hasn't happened to you, you were probably too busy leading your army of ninjas in a takeover of a famous landmark or something, since bullying is just pretty common. Generally this will lead the victim to smack the bully, who will either (a) walk away, realizing it's not worth a broken nose even if they pummel their victim, or (b) strike back with furious anger leaving a mess for EMTs and school attorneys to clean up. So with sensitivity to what bullying victims have to go through, this video was heartwarming and put me in a happy place.

In it, you'll see two kids--a skinny punk wearing "jorts" (yes the kid should have been beaten just for that) and a fat kid. Despite the size difference, the skinny kid is clearly picking on the fat kid, repeatedly punching him in the stomach and face, with the fat kid just taking it. Finally, after repeated punchings, the fat kid grabs the skinny kid, and literally body slams him, then walks away leaving the skinny kid--quite fazed--limping away.

Of course, this led to all sorts of consternation from school officials and parents who are clearly failures as human beings. All this crap about "violence never solving anything" is exactly why the Red Chinese are going to make us all slaves for their sugar mines some day. You know what violence solves? It solved bullies like the Nazis, the North Koreans, the Kaiser, and slavery in this country. You know what works better than asking the bully why he feels the need to randomly punch the misfit kid? Maybe the misfit kid smacking the crap out of the bully.

Now, there are times where violence is not an appropriate response to a problem--this is obvious. But one thing a bully doesn't want is to be beaten and humiliated, and the knowledge that their victim might turn out to be someone who can visit that fate on them can be a powerful motivator. I'll venture a guess that the bully in that video will actually be straightened out by the experience and learn to handle his aggression in a much more positive manner.

2 comments:

  1. I agree. Measured violence solves many, many problems.

    The military often refers to it as ascendency. And the best way to apply violence is in a swift, startling blow (as did the kid in the video). There is nothing quite as demoralizing or powerful in a conflict as a rapid change in who's fucking who over.

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  2. Foggy--that's right. Some commenters on the video argued this was disproportionate, since it looks like the skinny kid seriously hurt his ankle. But to me that's like "hey that's why you don't start real fights". One analogy is Japan in WWII. Sure, we hit them far harder than they could against us, and they were a weaker country. (About 3 million Japanese dead compared to about 100K Americans killed) But, this is why they shouldn't have started that war--it won't always go the way you expect.

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