Bullies

There are bullies in the horse world,  horses that seem to plainly not like each other and take every opportunity to take it out on the other horse through biting and kicking.  The "bullied" horse takes pains to stay away from the horse doing the bullying.  In a domestic horse environment, humans can help the process by keeping the "bully-er" and the "bully-ee" in separate pastures.  In a wild horse environment, that type of behavior can result in expulsion of the horse from the herd.

As always, the human world is more complex in this arena.  Bullying can take many forms in human:  physical bullying or psychological bullying.  And cyberspace and social media make it easier for the bullies to take out their aggression toward others but in a more insidious manner -- you can't always get away from the bullying when it is appearing on your Social Media account or being texted to your phone or being broadcast to the world.  Sure, you can "block", but bullies can find other ways to harass by changing account names or using new phone numbers.  And because cyber-bullying is so easy to do -- it can be anonymous and just type your message and send -- it is a technological epidemic as it becomes very easy for those that bully (or who might not do it face-to-face but feel comfortable doing it over cyberspace) to bully others on a wide scale, potentially taking an emotional toll on the bully victim and sometimes a physical toll as well.

And it is not just limited to teens.  Adults have climbed on the bandwagon as well. Over the past several months, I have had the misfortune of dealing with cyber-bullies.  And like the advice we give our children regarding bullies -- walk away, don't engage, talk to a responsible adult authority -- we adults have to follow similar advice.  Bullying is a learned behavior, one that carries immediate gratification to the bully-er, a sense of power and control over someone else.  The bully-ee needs to learn methods for effectively dealing with the bully' behaviors that wrests the control and power from them.  At that point, the bulling is rendered inffective.

Let's stop the epidemic.  Teach yourself, your children, and your friends measures to protect against bullies -- cyber or otherwise.  Stand up for those being bullied.