You would hope that by the time that we get to adulthood, that most of us would have learnt that bullying doesn’t work.
As has been proved lately, however, that is not the case for a significant number of people. And that unfortunately goes double for those in power.
With the aftermath of the Weinstein revelations, the use of individual power to force and subjugate has become a public shame, both for the perpetrators and those who turned a blind eye. For years.
And each day demonstrates how pervasive, and institutionalised the behaviour and attitude is. Across the globe.
And wherever it manifests on an individual and institutional level, it magnifies itself to nationalist aggression and groin-thrusting posturing.
History has proved that bullying doesn’t work, but then who ever pays attention to the lessons of the past. Because we could never make the same mistakes again. Surely?
So, 1918. The end of a war sparked by dubious political machinations that costs countless lives. But we won, if that devastation can be seen as a victory. And so what did we do as victors?
We stamped, ground, pulverised Germany into the dust. With the obvious result of providing a vacuum to be filled by extremism. The bullying attitude of the victors of WW1 led directly to WW2.
So, 1948. The Jewish people had been decimated, by the extremists created by the victors. And the same victors had, at the very least, been slow to acknowledge and address the holocaust. So, guilt, in part, and some effective terrorism, led to the establishment of the Jewish homeland.
Israel was created to give shelter to one of the most bullied nations ever. So what did they do? Decided to bully the people who had lived on that land for centuries. They were dispossessed, driven off and driven out. And the result? Another vacuum for extremism.
So, 2003. The destruction of Iraq’s government, infrastructure, cohesion, on the back of the most flagrant misdirections ever. But the US, the UK, had the power. We had the assumed moral imperative to do whatever we wanted. And so the brutish fist of the bully created another vacuum for extremism.
Where would you like to look next? The division of the Korean peninsula is a result of the opposing interests of outside powers using a smaller country to play out by proxy their differences.
The catastrophe that is Libya, Afghanistan, take your pick.
All examples where the big stick of the bully has opened the door for a more extreme response.
And when the opportunity presents itself to potentially step back from conflict, to grasp the chance of progress and reduce tension, what happens?
The biggest power continues the problem. A quick smile to make them look good then the threats begin. Either overtly with North Korea, or by default by legitimising the illegal activities of the Israeli government and establishing an embassy in Jerusalem.
Even with Russia, the bully cannot resist. Not so straight forward, I admit, but remembering that Russia was devastated by France, and twice by Germany, so being declared the world’s evil empire after two successive world wars is not going to help find peaceful coexistence.
But the lessons of history are always ignored. Each time. And the bullying continues. And the vacuums keep getting filled.
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