The Bully System
Imagine someone pointing a clenched fist towards you and approaching it very slowly but with unflinching determination, you get the idea. This may be the symbol for the Bully System. You feel uncomfortable . . from the beginning on. That is intended. When the fist is approaching you more you may feel anger because of disrespect or something similar. At one point – the fist is still approaching – you say: It’s enough, stop it! But the fist continues to approach you and you may feel the flight or fight reaction: just that somebody dares to put you in this position seems impertinent to you! And it is intended to do just that.
So you pick the fight-way and slap the fist off its course. Immediately it re-adjusts and you begin to feel the threat which is the real intention of your opponent: you sense it won’t go away ever! Finally you have to back up, since you realize that the fist won’t give in. At that point you are filled with rage but have to submit to something physically stronger. That impression is, of course, intended.
While you try to find a safe place your mind is racing: why is that fist coming towards you? Everything inside you cries foul but nobody seems to hear you. Very slowly it dawns on you. You understand that the system represented by the relentless fist is doing what it does because it CAN. And second, you understand that you are not included because you didn’t buy the appropriate behavioral ticket. You are excluded and the Bully System decides whenever it wants to bother you, or, if you are somehow in a prominent position, to threaten you. Just because it can.
The Bully System is exclusive. Good or bad, right or wrong, friend or foe, inside or outside. It simply assumes the right to define everything according to its power-mongering few.
Few? You may think that just a few people should not be so powerful. And that is true. The bullies live from the fear of the people they threatened in more or less subtle ways. They live by spreading fear and helplessness. The Bully System lives from all those spineless people who suddenly discover that to jump on the bandwagon is their last chance to participate in this corrupt system. And who subsequently are the loudest prophets of the ‘values’ of this system.
A system of oppression has no values other than power and greed. It serves only few people and defends its positions by attacking others. Its symbol could be the clenched fist. A clenched fist will eventually experience that it either suffers of a chronic cramp or it has to open because it can’t sustain its own unnatural pressure. The Bully System may appear in everyday settings like family or profession, or large scale on the political, economic, religious plain. The question with this system is – how much damage did it cause up to the point when it finally has to succumb to its own self-destructive core?
Puberty introduces boys and girls into the mating game. Everybody is showing what they have in order to make an impression – or, with less confidence, tries to avoid the whole thing. Power and greed seem to be attitudes reminding strongly of puberty: its proponents want to permanently show their ability to dominate. They missed adulthood because they stopped to develop in puberty: any inner development has been a luxury they couldn’t afford.
And while the Bully System is indeed a very male-patriarchial type of system, it wouldn’t exist without women admiring the ‘strength’ of those bullies.
Just grow up and get real. If you don’t want to end up in todays prevalent but nevertheless stupid media-supported world of megalomania, begin your practice now: face yourself! Not one time, for the rest of your life! And maybe you experience what it is all about and why. Opening your heart is neither an easy thing to do nor is it esoteric. It also is not limited to your children your spouse or your dog. Enough words.
Just practice if you dare to.
Entries (RSS)