Alas, that doesn't mean it isn't learned. The fact that the father humiliated him as the punishment suggests that the father might not be as innocent as he thinks. Humiliation and intimidation are bully tactics, I'm afraid, no matter how good the cause. Seeing other kids behaving this way at school could influence him as well. Even in 4th grade, peers are an influence. In fact, bullied kids sometimes bully other kids as a way of getting back some control so perhaps they need to look into his situation.
That said, I suspect that some personalities are more prone to trying to control their social setting which could lead to conflict and bullying behaviour and since personality has a strong genetic component, it could well be that there is an "in-born" component. Don't have time to do any serious reading on the psychology literature around this subject.
For the record, I was bullied (quite badly at times) from grade school through high school. A lot of that was taunting me for being "gay" simply for not conforming to the social norms rather than because I was actually engaging in any gay sexual behaviour. That is likely why I didn't start to seriously explore my bisexual side until recently. Acting out my male fantasies would be validating the taunts or something like that.
Big-haired Bitch/Personality Hire
Yes and no. Children of bigots/bullies often grow up to be bigots/bullies. However, some break away from this and go against the grain. Likewise, someone could have the greatest parents ever and still choose to be a bigot/bully.
So it depends on the individual, but the environment has a great impact on this. It's a nature (innate qualities) vs. nurture (environment) sort of thing.
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I think that bullying can be a learned thing more often than not. If a child is always hearing their parents or guardian saying negative things and making derogatory comments and slurs about other then they might follow along with it. Children look up to their parents and they might not know any better. It's not just parents though, their school environment probably affects them too, when other kids are picking on each other, more might join in so that they don't become the one being made fun of.
I don't think that anyone is ever born to be hateful and a bully.
It can be both but I really think it is mostly learned unless the child has a mental disorder. Bullying is a horrible thing and if you have ever talked to a victim of it, it would break your heart. I have a relative who just bullied a child and I had some words with him, very strong ones.
Bullying is that which is done to a more obvious degree by the one who is a bully. By that i mean society bullies everyone into what behaviour is unacceptable or acceptable. The bully is more obvious. The bullying by society is less so. That is not to say that bullying doesn't exist it says that the manifestation is glaringly obvious. Basically when a bully is called out as a bully that is only the society itself telling the bully that their behaviour is unacceptable. The issue is conformity to the norm, whatever society dictates the norm to be at the particular time. You will never stop bullying. Our discussion of this is proof. If there was a personal manifestation of this in the forum today, ie. a particular person that we specifically are referring to in our society, Lush stories society forum for example, then we would be bullying him/her into proper behaviour in our society. Just an opinion from one who has been bullied.
Innocents is the word used for the new born. and yet sociopaths are born, psychopaths too. Blame it on the chemical imbalance, the missing gene?
Could be. However in my years on this earth i have found it is the environment that is the root cause for most social problems.
All well and good.
First of all let me address this secondary smoke issue you brought up. Hang with this for a minute and do not emotionally respond although from what I have seen thus far I don't think you will.
Unless you non smokers can clearly delineate the specific amounts of carcinogens that I as a smoker dump into the atmosphere and clearly demonstrate it as mine as opposed to the infinite trillions (literally) of other carcinogens dumped into that atmosphere on a daily basis by the rest of every animal and plant on this planet you have no right to tell me that I can't.
Existing on this planet releases that. Every thing on this planet contributes to the carcinogens dumped here not just me. This is a hypocritical argument, what makes your carcinogens better than mine? If you don't want me to smoke in your presence whatever. Carcinogens are an issue no doubt. Unless you are ready to label all carcinogens as secondary smoke. It would be wise to remember the old adage about three fingers pointing back as a person points one finger.
As to the big C, cancer. My father passed away because of throat cancer 15 years ago . They attribute his death to cigarettes yet he was conceived in south-western South Dakota near a town named Edgemont which at one time was to be evacuated because of excess Radiation. Subsequently the have found vast resources of Uranium under the entire south-western part of South Dakota and are currently debating the efficacy of mining it. Yet my Father passed away because of cigarettes? Give me a break. There is another aspect also here. We supposedly know how many bombs they tested on the flats of New Mexico, we do not know how many they haven't told us about, (I'm sure they wouldn't lie to us about that, NOT) What is the drift of weather from New Mexico? North by Northwest. Where did the radiation go? Not only where I live but the entire eastern half of the United States too. Another point, the town of Igloo in South-western South Dakota used to be an ammunition storage point during both world wars. Today there are sign all over the area to stay out of the abandoned town, could it because they needed a place to dump the spent plutonium and uranium from all those tests? That is almost a no brainer.
I won't even mention Methane gas except to say that I find it about as pleasant as you find secondary smoke!!! I'm not attempting to personalize this I'm just pointing out that we do not need scape goats we need solutions.
I will talk about more about this bullying question later
Some are born that way and for some it is learned behavior. We know sociopaths are born that way.
i'm not even close to an expert, but my opinion, just from being life experience is that it's mostly enviornmental and learned behavior - doesn't even have to come from the parents - perhaps it's an admired uncle or a celebrity - movie, music, or sports star - Chris Brown comes to mind, a musician who has millions of fans and been documented as being abusive. kids are impressionable - we all had someone we admired and wanted to be like when we were growing up - hopefully it was someone of good character with ethics, but that's not always the case.
You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.
Bullying can lead to real violence. Ask Matthew Shepard. Oh we can't because a bunch of murdering bullies killed him. Ask Diane Whipple? No we can't bullies...Bullies have to be stopped young and some parents think it makes their child look tough, no it makes the rest of us question what goes on in your home.
I wish to make one point regarding this whole bullying issue as it relates to this discussion and then I will bow out.
The only way this whole debate makes any sense is if, One, (Society,) is going to so thoroughly study this to the end of going all the way to the, Mother Board, so to speak, and by that I mean DNA, and reprogram people. If that isn't the ultimate in Bullying what is.
The way to handle the Bully is to criminalize his behaviour and deal with the Bully as a Criminal. Any other solution is infringing upon personal choice and society does not have that right.
Pretty much and peer pressure too