RicOlie_2 said:
I think DrCrow is making plenty of valid points, and I agree with him on several of them, though certainly not all.
Something that must be taken into consideration here is that bullying may have a vastly different effect on one person to another. Now that I've thought of it, I realize there have been several times I have been bullied and times I have participated in bullying, but the former never got to me. I participated in bullying a few times at a point in my life in which I was trying to fit in too much. I had been socially awkward and felt out of place before that, and I went too far in the other direction. I made a decision to change, and be an individual rather than part of the crowd after realizing where I had gone wrong.
Warbler strikes me as a sensitive, emotional kind of guy (I'm in no way insinuating that those are negative characteristics), and he is thus far more likely to be affected by personal attacks and bullying. DrCrow seems far less so, and quite resembles a sociopathic friend of mine in the way he often writes. I don't mean to imagine any psychological problems onto him, but merely intend to observe that he doesn't seem to be the type who would be as affected by bullying.
So the solution does not lie in his proposal (not fully, anyhow), nor entirely in Warbler's, who has a very negative view of bullies. Some people can get by by being taught to deal with bullies. Others, need to have other help.
That's a pretty good summing up, thank you.
I guess since history is my big subject I am always just a little afraid of the way human will blow a problem up out of all proportion and then in the efforts to stamp out that problem will trample on freedoms to do it be it at witch trials, comic book violence, or fear of enemy agents working within the borders of your country. I don't want to see this issue become the latest excuse to take away people's freedoms and bullying can be so broadly defined and is so hated that I think it could be. That and the fact that I find it a little worrying when kids grow up unable to handle problems on their own are my biggest concerns.