Bullying as a Reflection of Our Values, or Lack Thereof

Bullies...



From the front porch, it does seem 'bullying' has taken a severe turn for the worse with folks today. There was a time when bullying was almost a part of the Rockwellian landscape of schoolyards. Somehow it stayed "in hand," usualy policed by the victims and their friends. Now...



So what's different, to breed this toxic mutant behaviour?



Here a a few half-baked ideas, however, you may have a better grip on this than I do.



(1) If bullying is worse today, it doesn't take a genius to say that something in our culture has changed. To put it awkwardly, our culture is the fertilizer from which the current generation's deeds grow.



(2) Comparatively speaking, current culture places far less value on the individual's spirit, freedom, property and something that might be called "social worthiness." Thus we're more comfortable, with, for instance, snuffing folks at both ends of the age spectrum. Do we think kids don't get the message?



(3) A corollary might be that "self-reliance" has been devalued as has self-responsibility been shelved in favor of State "responsibility" (disregarding, for the moment how counterproductively that works in reality). There's a far more pervasive attitude that 'someone else' is going to take care of me, and 'someone else' is not the Daddy who's missing from the household.

Just a few possible thought-starters. Speaking of which---yours?