Yesterday, someone told me something.
There are lots of things I know absolutely nothing (well, next to nothing) about.
I have never heard a Justin Bieber song (sorry), and I also haven't heard that Friday song people keep bashing on.
Which kind of reminds me of something I wanted to mention. You know how it's very hip and trendy to be all up on this anti-bullying thing? Well, among the other things I'm no good at is the whole hip and trendy scene... but I completely agree with the anti-bullying movement, and I recognize the horrible damages that have been inflicted on undeserving people by the disregard for personal "no-fly" zones.
But it seems that a lot of the members of the anti-bully church will turn right around and participate in mass pick-on movements aimed against people like Justin Bieber (who, honestly... and, sorry, Justin, but I've never heard a single song of yours, because you seem like a nice, hard-working kid) and that girl (I don't know her name) with the Friday song (which I've also never heard).
So I guess I'm wondering, if being a bully is so reprehensible, why do so many people dilute their moral and righteous indignation at the concept of bullying and then just throw themselves in with the crowd, simply because it seems to be okay... or trendy... or whatever... to throw all this shit around about one individual?
I have to just shrug.
By the way, I just found out last week what "winning" referred to.
I know.
I'm a pop-culture loser.
I didn't know anything about that guy, either.
So, back to what I really wanted to talk about today, which is yet ANOTHER trendy, pop-culture, everybody's-doing-it-so-it-must-be-morally-neutral, join-the-masses thing.
But, all of a sudden, I'm kind of in a bad mood now and I'm going to go out and do my five-mile run.
I'll continue this tomorrow.
9 comments:
It is a strange phenomenon, the anti-bullying movement and the mob mentality.
And I don't really see an answer unless, of course, everyone was just nice to each other.....
But then that might be some kind of Stepfordville, because NOBODY is that nice all of the time.
Where is the line between telling it like it is and being considered a bully?
What I think, and this is just my opinion, is that it is really easy to sling mud at folks from behind a computer screen, especially if one is anonymous. And there is a strange need in our society to hoist people up on high pedestals(celebrities mostly, but maybe in other arenas as well) and then to shove them off.
I don't quite get it. Do we want to watch people rise up so we can think, "Wow, that would happen to me!" and then rip them down because if someone else is on the top, then there just isn't room for us? Or is it that once they have success, we discover how unworthy they are (perhaps they are just regular people?) and it becomes more cool to bash them and put them back in their place.
I dunno.
People are weird.
(Sorry I went on so long. Been thinking about this a lot myself.)
Shelley
I read sixty essays about bullying two weeks ago because I look over that kind of stuff for a teacher who has better things to do.
Not a single student knows what bullying is. Yeah, they know the basics; they know it's when someone's hurting someone else in some form or another. But they don't get it. To them, bullying is a fairytale from some book; when they see bullying, they don't understand it. They see facts on paper like "Victims of bullies have low self-esteem and are prone to depression and suicide," and they can only think, "God, why can't they get over themselves?" like it's that easy. "Abuse" and "bullying" are pretty close in meaning; they don't see that. They think abuse is so, so terrible, and bullying's just "whatever, just get an adult or something, it's not that hard."
So, yeah, it doesn't really surprise me with this whole Justin Bieber stuff.
Then again, those kids are middle schoolers. So I probably don't have all the facts.
But they're almost high schoolers. And sixty is a lot...
It makes you wonder.
Of course I'm also against bullying. But I don't think this quite fits that category.
You should listen to the Friday song before judging too harshly those who attack it. (Stay away from sharp objects while listening.)
In my personal case it wasn't a sense that "I must attack this," it was sheer glee at the perfect awfulness of it. I love bad. But I don't think I've commented in any public way, just sort of enjoyed it here in-house with Jake who shares my sense that the extraordinarily bad must be celebrated.
As for Bieber, I don't think there's anything too terrible about taking an occasional shot at a 16 year old multi-millionnaire fawned over by every girl in the nation. You never took a shot at . . . okay, your age cohort's equivalent of Davy Jones of the Monkees . . . when you found the girls at school all crushing on him?
I think of it as a sort of progressive income tax on those born very lucky. Revenge of the un-cute. And Bieber's a smart boy: he's spoofed himself in the ad he did with Ozzy. Made me actually like him.
On the other hand, I do feel sorry for the Friday girl who just walked into a shit storm through no real fault of her own. Then again, (on the third hand) she hit the top ten on iTunes and even now is at #26. She's probably made a few hundred grand.
If the Friday girl was smart she'd do a follow-up with a musical addendum explaining Tuesday and Wednesday, which were given short shrift in the first song. People would love it and she would have "pwned" them, in internet parlance.
Obviously I get annoyed at people who take shots at me -- especially if they are anonymous, as you know -- but I also know that I have this great job a lot of people wish they had, and I have far fewer troubles than most people, so I can't really see myself as being bullied when someone takes a shot. I bully them back. Pretty soon it's Israel and Palestine.
I know I kind of got sidetracked. And it's not that I don't appreciate a well-aimed shot now and then, too. It's just a lot of people who cry "hurt feelings" the loudest also turn around and spread shit about individuals we often think are immune to such attacks simply because they are multimillionaires or Hollywood A-listers.
Anyway, the whole thing had almost NOTHING to do with what I really wanted to talk about today, which pisses me off to a much greater extent.
It's you, Michael.
No.
I'll tell you tomorrow. And I am not going to hold back. I'll admit here and now that I plan on bullying specific individuals tomorrow.
I thought I was out of it pop-culture-wise before but now I'm sure. Okay. I do know who Justin Beiber is, but I'm lost the the days of the week. There's too much talking in code and I don't know the lingo. It's my own fault so before I make an ass of myself and comment Ill find the Friday song and see if I can figure out what it all means. That or maybe I'll read a paper to see if that'll help it all make sense. I like what Michael said, even if I couldn't follow all of it as some was cryptic.
I think I need an example so I'll wait until tomorrow's post.
Also, Andrew, just finished In the Path of Falling Objects and I'm still reeling from it. What a brutal, disturbing, honest and insightful book. I loved it. Mathew's story just tore me up and the final words of the two brothers by the lake made everything that came before just beautiful and perfect. It's a toss-up for me which of your books is the best. Each carry's its own beauty and each will haunt me for quite a while. Now I've read all but Stick and can't wait to see what you come up with next.
Great, I just heard that the Friday girl is 13.
Okay, now I'm an asshole.
See? That's what you get for looking. And you only looked because someone alerted you to this new, hip trend -- this "thing" that everyone knows about. I haven't looked. Not going to. Still haven't heard a Bieber song, or the Friday thing.
Man. I'm glad I missed this one.
Though, for what's it worth, I have two daughters, and they both think Justin Bieberlake is lame.
So I researched this Friday thing (you should be a little sad I heard of it here) and it seems to me that these Ark Music assholes are exploiting kids.
That's not funny. Charlie Sheen is funny.
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