Bullying: How much can affect us?

Bullying is defined as the use of superior force or influence to intimidate someone, usually to force them to do something. It starts from an early age as we model our children in a given version of homo-sapiens so they can survive. In fact, all mammals show a similar behavior.

Someone could argue that there is a difference between intimidating and guiding someone towards proper behavior. I am sorry I disagree. An adult human being dwarfs a child in both power and influence. Children are not only able to recognize power within their environment but also exercise it on other children.

Whether we like it or not, life does not matter to the concepts created by human beings, such as social norms. It only worries about the survival of the most adoptable ecosystem changes. Our species exists because it intimidated many others. In the past, we came out with ours spilling blood. Today we have passed our ways of diminishing the death that comes from concepts such as social isolation and financial action. One could argue that the latter are terrible ways to die, that the disappearance is quite slow and painful. Surely much worse than a bullet that travels painlessly in your head.

Every aspect of our world is dominated by intimidation. We may not see the Chief directly pressuring the employee, but the dynamics are quite evident. And no, we can not do anything about it because we all crave power and we all approve it more or less, even if we superficially deny it.

We crave power and influence when we write a publication. We crave power and influence when we try to approach a woman who also wants others. We crave power and influence when we go to school, we study something and we try to beat everyone else by "changing the world". Power is a means to itself.

Each dictator was a humanitarian visionary. Each and every one wanted to create a world based on their taste. We still have to be honest with ourselves and admit that "better" is just a matter of interpretation. What is "better" for the spider is not necessarily for the fly trapped in its network.

We are constantly in the dynamics of power and there is no better way to decipher the narrative than the following: The system is not like that because the 1% want it to be so. This is because, in the end, the vast majority (10%) yearns to be 1%.

We aspire to people like Michael Jackson, Pablo Escobar, Kim Kardashian, Cristiano Ronaldo, to name a few, define their way of life for the rest, at least for the great majority. They created appearances and the way we created meaning in our lives by using their prototypes. Sure, there is no zero-sum game, but life can be pretty bad in a world when compared to what is potentially "better". Humans are superior emotional beings. Have 15% of the population on earth living in a luxury regime, while the rest of the daily struggle with food, water and shelter.

Bullying can be bad when we are young. Psychologists could argue that it creates "trauma." I would say "So what?" The world is not a happy place with unicorns and rainbows. We are all byproducts of trauma.

If children learn that the world is a "fair" place, they will have a much harder time when they grow up. Actually, this is exactly the problem today and why our society has manifested itself in rights. People are traumatized too easily. If a problem arises, we only take one pill without even bothering to deal with the situation. We are being intimidated by those who are above us in the pyramid, but instead of complaining to the director and our parents, we are desensitized because there is no shoulder to cry.

Accepting that bullying is inevitable allows us to deal with the harshness of life. Denying their existence puts us in a perpetual cycle of whining and complaining. The only problem is that we are too busy paying attention to the foot that is placed on our neck, ignoring the fact that we are also stepping on the neck of another person.