Cruel?

I believe that "Dirty Rat Bastard" is the phrase you're seeking.


Pizza was yummy, BTW.

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When they come a wull staun ma groon
Staun ma groon al nae be afraid
Thoughts awe hame tak awa ma fear
Sweat an bluid hide ma veil awe tears

If that's true, why are we talking about bullying?

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Obama's New "57 State Patriotic Pin":




Sayeth John Drake - 10/13/08: "OK, you're right, I admit to LYING"

Problem is there is MORE ignorance and stupidity.

My wife is a Surgical Tech and works in the operating room at the hospital. Last week she helped a surgeon stitch back together a young man that with his friends tried to see how fast they could go on a skateboard and still hold onto the back of a car.


The whole point of "How did we survive" is that our parents let us get hurt and learn. They didn't cocoon us in an artificial womb that kept out all the bad and didn't properly prepare us to live in the real world.

I agree in the past there were bad things too. Jim Crow laws, Seperate But Equal and many other things that were not race related.

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Listener of the Wilkow Majority
Patriot, Conservative, Libertarian

From the article:

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When they come a wull staun ma groon
Staun ma groon al nae be afraid
Thoughts awe hame tak awa ma fear
Sweat an bluid hide ma veil awe tears

This hasn't been addressed yet, so I'll ask it again: How is a child "chased against his will"?

That's absolutely mind-boggling.

But, it the kid is "chased", and tagged "IT", if he doesn't chase anyone, doesn't that effectively put an end to the game?

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Obama's New "57 State Patriotic Pin":




Sayeth John Drake - 10/13/08: "OK, you're right, I admit to LYING"

It's hard to say. There's not enough information available. My best guess would be that the child was threatened in some way; not uncommon at that age.

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When they come a wull staun ma groon
Staun ma groon al nae be afraid
Thoughts awe hame tak awa ma fear
Sweat an bluid hide ma veil awe tears

A "real man" would bring a switchblade to school and show those bullies the meaning of the word terror. Oh, wait - that's what we don't want. It gets so confusing sometimes

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

Well, that may be true, but it's a difficult thing to "measure". I'm guessing that this is in the eye of the beholder. There's an interesting phenomena of perception that occurs. Put 100 people in a room, and ask everyone who believes that he's smarter than at least half of the people in the room to raise his hand, and watch as about 85 hands go up. Ask any generation which is the best, and they will say theirs. In fact, I seem to recall reading somewhere, that, historically, pretty much every adult generation thinks that their children's generation sucks (kids these days, I tells ya). I bet the "greatest generation" had all manner of opinion on the "increased ignorance and stupidity" of baby boomers.

Wait - isn't that exactly what happened in your story above? Boys were being boys... I'm willing to bet that a lot of kids who didn't survive the "how did we survive" days were killed doing some of the things fondly remembered there (though the author seems to gloss over that).

It seems that the metric here is that if boys do stupid, dangerous things with no consequences, then they're taking risks and learning to be men. But, if they do stupid, dangerous things and have doctors putting their intestines back in, then they're stupid and a product of a bad generation (or bad parenting). For instance, the author of that bit proudly extols the virtues of parents who don't bother having their children wear seatbelts. Methinks that if you read about a toddler being peeled off the windshield in today's paper, you might blame it on the stupidity and ignorance of today's parents

Yes, and I'll agree with you that many things are stupid now that may not have been then (frivolous lawsuits, reality television, political correctness taken to absurd degrees, etc)

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

Also to consider is the conflicting messages in this thread. I'm seeing a lot of the sentiment that being bullied is a rite of passage, and that everyone needs to learn to stand up to the bullies, like in "A Christmas Story". It conjures up warm images of a dad strapping boxing gloves to his big-eared, goofy-grinned son and saying, "Son, today I'm going to teach you to defend yourself."

But what happens when you tell these children to stand up for themselves, they try, and the bully pummels them into submission and continues to torment them? What happens when the pre-pubescent child is simply no match for the bully and his friends? What then? To hear a lot of people in the thread tell it, he needs to "man up" and "take care of his problem".

Now, it seems to me that the only way to do this with an opponent for which you are physically no match is to introduce a weapon or some other sort of tactical advantage into the mix (creep into the bathroom while he's taking a whiz and kick him in the balls or something). While I won't say that the massacre at Columbine is the natural conclusion to this "be a man" thinking, I would say that the shooting/stabbing of a particular bully certainly is. After all, what's a "would-be man" to do when his fists simply won't cut it against a bigger and more numerous adversary? Is he supposed to run like a little bitch, or pick up a weapon and do something about it?

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

Are you telling me that you can't envision a scenario in which reluctant participants are chased in a children's game of tag? Here's one to try on for size:

You, me and the other "normal" kids are playing a game of tag and having great fun. We decide (this is how children seem to think) that Joe Nerd should play because he's an easy target. We tag him and tell him that he's "it". He refuses to run or play, so we pull down his pants, punch him in the stomach, and tell him that he'd damn well better play next time he's "it". I decide to become "it" and chase the poor, terrified bastard. Now, the whole point of tag is to run away - so scaring the bejesus out of someone makes for a livelier opponent. We chase Joe Nerd all over the playground, laughing.

In fact, I'd imagine that "tag" on playgrounds often descends into a game that could more aptly be called "chase".

I don't know if your recall being a kid, but I certainly do. Kids are capable of remarkable cruelty toward one another.

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

Yo

Perhaps, but perhaps not. Bullies can teach a lot of other lessons too, it all depends on the parents. A bully can help teach the ever important ideal of 'defending the weak.' Not by exhibiting this behavior themselves obviously, but instead...the Lancelot type (we all know him, the son of the ex-marine etc) who 'shows the bully the error of his ways.' A bully can help teach fair play. If parents teach one on one, man to man, the bully will give an opportunity to put that lesson into practice. It's one thing to tell a kid something (I wasn't one that long ago, and thus believe I can speak as an expert) it doesn't stick until it's actually put into practice. 2 bullies vs Lancelot + victim = fair fight. Perhaps my school was different in that regard, but, there were a bunch of Lancelot types (who I learned my own Lancelot streak from, maybe the best thing about myself.)

Hell, look at TV : the kid who finally stands up for themself and takes out the bully is portrayed as a hero, ESPECIALLY if that kid isn't the one being bullied, but instead stands up for someone weaker than them.

That's only if the bully is allowed to win. It's my personal experience in school, the bullies were taught that what you were saying above is wrong. If anything, from my experience, the teachers were actually protecting the bullies. There were several occasions were the Lancelot types (myself included after I grew a pair as it were) taught a bully a lesson as it were, and thus were ratted out and punished. (For anyone who's been in my position, you know exactly the type of bully I'm talking about.) Which is yet ANOTHER lesson that can be taught...sometimes, you have to do the right thing, no matter the cost to yourself.

It's the duty of those who have the ability to protect to do so. That lesson can be taught, to both the defeated bully and to the protector. The bully teaches 'might doesn't make right' in a much more concrete form than words ever could.

The situation you describe can only come to pass if someone doesn't stand up and do the right thing.

It's my experience that the 'good kids' vastly outnumber the bullies. Second, once one person stands up others will draw strength from that person and thus act where they were previously afraid to do so alone, virtually guaranteeing superior force on the part of the 'good guys' as it were.

I was watching something on court TV, one of their 'extreme crime' shows. The show was an incident where a man had gotten fired, had gone to a train station to kill his boss, couldn't find the boss and began stabbing himself instead. Well, the crowd stayed back from him until one man charged him to attempt to get the knife away from him. Within seconds of the first man charging, the rest of the crowd gained strength from the man who stood up, and hence mobbed him, took the knife away, and saved his life.

This was my personal experience in school. Those lessons are necessary for a safe and secure society, and bullies throughout history have been an effective method of teaching them. All your points are valid, though to a certain degree are entering the land of the hypothetical. But then, my arguments are as well.

Ban bullies, ban the possibility of people learning good things from them, but also ban the possibility of people learning not-so-good things from them. The question I guess is...do the ends justify the means?

What a tremendous pile of steaming horseshit.

The article I linked to says nothing of pulling down pants, punching anyone in the stomach, or anything of the like.

Again, it's impossible to "force" someone to play tag...

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Obama's New "57 State Patriotic Pin":




Sayeth John Drake - 10/13/08: "OK, you're right, I admit to LYING"

Wow, so the answer is to ban tag? This is the same flawed thought process used by the anti-gun crowd.

Kramer

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“It's time to admit that public education operates like a planned economy, a bureaucratic system in which everybody's role is spelled out in advance and there are few incentives for innovation and productivity. It's no surprise that our school system doesn't improve; it more resembles the communist economy than our own market economy."
Albert Shanker, former president of the American Federation of Teachers

Did you actually read the rest of the thread?

__________________
When they come a wull staun ma groon
Staun ma groon al nae be afraid
Thoughts awe hame tak awa ma fear
Sweat an bluid hide ma veil awe tears