01-02-2020, 02:06 PM
(01-02-2020, 04:25 AM)Bill the Piper Wrote:(12-30-2019, 08:58 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: Math has commercial value. Brawling is worthless. Math is worth the effort.All of this is perfectly valid, but the bullies won't understand that. They operate on a short-term perspective, telling them maths will help them make money when they are 30 will only make them laugh at you.
To be sure, people good at fighting might be good soldiers or prize fighters, but those good at either are well-disciplined people who know when to start and quit and follow certain rules (in boxing) and obey orders (in war). Prize fighters rarely get involved in fights out of the ring, and military officers loathe pointless brawls. I suspect that I am the norm in that I have run from plenty of fights before they start. In the military, brawlers face official discipline even harsher than in civilian life. Even if I am neither a soldier not a prize fighter I have no desire to break a fist on someone else's jaw, and I don't want someone to break my jaw.
Quote:Bullies seem to operate on the basis of "I'm OK, you're not OK", in contrast to what Thomas Harris suggested by the title I'm OK, You're OK in his pop-psychology book (1972) by that name. If seeing Humanity as a whole as largely competent and good -- including oneself -- is the healthy position according to Harris because such is good for bringing out the best in people, "I'm OK, you're not OK" is a position of abuse, exploitation, and humiliation. Such goes with criminality, abuse of the helpless (including spouses, children, and elders or socially-identified pariahs), swindling, and oppression as a perpetrator. When one's self-esteem or expression of such is excessive or unjustifiable, "I'm OK, you're not OK" implies at the least a need for humbling the person.
I think their basis is more like "I'm not OK, you're not OK". They use bullying to justify themselves. "At least I'm not learning Elvish like this loser". So they deal with their low self-esteem by attacking peers whom they see as inferior even to themselves.
Maybe it is in part a class distinction in that the middle class that values education and sees a longer time frame thinks differently. One pattern that I saw in high school in the 1970's was a divide between smokers and non-smokers. The kids taking the more rigorous classes and seeking good grades in those classes that everyone took did not smoke. The others did. Some of us saw smoking as a waste of money and a pointless risk of premature aging and death. The bullies all smoked.
Those who take their studies seriously often show early signs of middle-aged behavior and otherwise act like the (to the academic losers) teachers. The serious students are to those losers the sell-outs and suck-ups... the quislings of High School. Yes, we are the ones who become the teachers. Bullying is often an attempt to turn the table. For a short time it might work.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.