The Terror of Islamism

Bullyism is the practice of achieving ends by physical coercion including torture, intimidation, the brain-washing mind-rape of coercive persuasion, and the lies of propaganda. It is a practice distinguished by aggressive rather than defensive action. A well practiced habit of achievement by means of physical torture, mental cruelty, emotional trauma, intimidation and brain-washing (coercive persuasion). The goal or achievement is eradication or radical suppression of the subject of its condemnation, an individual, group or a society. Bullyism is born out of a perception of power differences and the willingness of the aggressor to use dominating power in a situation where the willingness of the defenseless to acquiesce is sensed.

If bullyism is tried and it works, its success breeds a habit of aggressive action. Bullyism is probably a primary act tried very early in life and habituated before the cerebral cortex has formed as an inhibiting force. Try reasoning with a furious child! Empathize with the mom of a screaming, red-eyed child in the supermarket. Mom isn’t giving so the tantrum starts. So Mom must become the inhibiting power. Let it scream and ignore it hoping it will burn out in time? Pacify it with giving in to its demands? Compromise it with the substitution of something equally or more desirable to both Mom and child? Distract it with another object or event? Punish it with a shaking or a few well placed whacks? Remove it to the car outside and the care of a sibling? Hire a nanny? Shame it with the view of others looking on at this ugliness of the little perp? Make promises (bribes) of a future reward such as a trip to Disneyland? Hand it a dollar to spend on anything in the store costing a dollar? The red-eyed screamer is probably attempting to bully Mom to accede to a wish, making the Mom self-conscious with embarrassment (and the kid might sense this power to embarrass as another situational tool), the child needs to be dealt with at once. Discuss with the child the cause of the bullyism taking hold of the child at that moment. What are the simple alternatives chosen by the Mom and those by the child, giving the child some choices along with reasonable justifications for each alternative? The latter would take some extra time out of what was originally to be accomplished at the supermarket that day. Are the child’s concerns of little importance and deemed a very small thing by a busy, overworked Mom? Is the child’s education in civilized behavior worth the time it would take? Each time thereafter the time required would probably diminish, and the child would be inculcated with the rudiments of democratic society, the give and take of discussion and debate. And some little gray cells will start to make connections for future pathways of behavior.

Think of the bad societies of the past which were led by bullyism. North Korea now. Stalinist U.S.S.R. Pol Pot’s killing fields. Hitler’s Final Solution in Germany, one of the most religious societies. Societies with human sacrifice, cannibalism, robber barons, drug lords, the Vandals, Napoleon’s France, the Crusaders, the Inquisition, the Dar Fur rampage, Islamic radical terrorists. The history of the human race is a process of this sliver working its way through the body of historical experience until it finally comes out. (I had a pebble in my elbow form being ridden by my brother on the bar of his bike and being dumped backwards when he hit a railroad track at an angle. The pebble I did not know was there came out a decade later.)

The list of physical and verbal rage goes on. It’s Ann Coulter’s words. It’s “bring-it-on” George Bush the Preempter. (What, btw, was that which was preempted?) It was Hitler’s Big Lie” and Friday night decrees. Taliban beheadings. Bin Laden’s Twin Towers. Name-calling. Character assassination. The practices of individuals who have nothing but the willingness and ability to use any means in taking from others by force what they have. The law of the claw. The fright of the bite. The gist of the fist. The crunch of the truncheon. The idea of the i.e.d. The de-individuation of the mask.

Tyrannosaurus Rex, the giant lizard, would not be a good example of natural bullyism because there was no social content in its formidable nature. T. Rex specialized in size and tool of tooth for satisfying its hunger, at the top of the food chain. In the United States, the national symbol is a high-flying bird of prey, eagle eyes, a ripping beak and sharp talons, but all in the service of a respectable need to feed, although we probably chose it because of its rather fierce appearance. The lone eagle. (True at present because of our belligerent stance in the world.)

[(A digression.) Could our national symbol be the honey bee? It is a rather peaceful matriarchal creature providing sweet food for its young and assures survival by prodigious, full employment, worker industry. But each individual has a stinger—universal military capability, for dying in defense of its hive-nation. (Sounds somewhat socialistic, eh?) Now with its current endangerment we will learn how valuable it has been to our society. The bald eagle (recently on the endangered-species list) is held sacred by those who believe in its intimidating stature, to those who have that base streak of bullyism. And haven’t we made a name for ourselves as the world’s economic and military bully lately? If the choice of a national symbol were being made today, what would you choose? Animal, vegetable or mineral? Bison? Wheat? Gold?]

Perhaps a rogue elephant would better portray an animal driven to bullyism by human intrusions into its space. There is a social element in bullyism. It is learned. Human specimens which have specialized in the powerful physique may also have developed powerful urges to throw their weight around. Athletic models abound for the “peaceful” channeling of individual power. I would propose a law of sport: the more opportunity for sports in a society, the greater is the prospect for a thriving democratic society. Soccer hooliganism lowers the perception and state of the democratic values of that society. I would propose a “law” of culture: the more peaceful relations among cultural groups, the greater is the prospect for a thriving democratic society. Our heritage of separation of church and state, thus squelching the theocratic impulse to be seen in much of the rest of the world, contributes to our claim that we are one of the outstanding examples of a thriving democracy. The playground bully evidences the lack of sportsmanship. He has been taught the power play that comes of size and fighting skill. What has not been inculcated in the playground bully is the alternative human response to inhibit or moderate and control aggression by substituting more democratic attitudes for the good of the whole and his personal future welfare.