Heroic Intolerance and Bullying?

On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I’ve been thinking about intolerance and bullying. My town puts an amazing celebration that my daughter was part of today. It’s quite the celebration of diversity for our small town, and includes kids from the schools, students from the university, people from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, local artists, etc. For all the talent displayed, the most amazing thing is how supportive everybody is of each other.

I’m not saying that we all have to agree with everybody’s choices or opinions, or even enjoy being around everybody else. And I know that we all justify ourselves in various ways so that we all think we’re on the side of good. But when that feeling of being on the side of right turns to bullying—where people who think they are superior try to intimidate, belittle, and/or oppress those that they believe are inferior—how do those bullies reconcile their actions with all the stories?

Since I’ve been writing about evidence, it’s difficult to find examples in our stories with admirable bullies. Even when there was similar behavior in real life, they don’t portray it that way in the movies. In Westerns, the cowboys don’t bully the indians. They are usually set up so that they are defending innocent people from marauders. In vigilante movies, where the lone hero solves problems with violence, he is usually fighting back against a group of bullies and thugs. It’s hard to find bullies to cheer for. If bullies read Harry Potter, do they cheer for the Dursleys or the Slytherins? Forget about whether your cause is white, black, or gray, where do you get to admire the bully tactics of a hero? In the stories, bullies are villians not heroes.

Of course, the answer must be that bullies don’t see themselves as bullies. Perhaps it’s because they think that they have a noble goal whereas the story-bullies don’t. Perhaps it’s just the only way they know how to defend what they think it right. Or perhaps being themselves is not enough—maybe they have a need to feel superior, at the expense of others. There must be many reasons. But I’m still amazed by the mental gymnastics that must go on to not look in the mirror when they watch the movies or read the stories.

It ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it.