It's not just the bully in the schoolyard that we should be worried
about. The one-on-one bullying that dominates the national
conversation, this timely book suggests, is actually part of a
larger problem—a natural outcome of the bullying nature of our
national institutions. And as long as the United States embraces
militarism and aggressive capitalism, systemic bullying and all its
impacts—at home and abroad—will persist as a major crisis.
Bullying looks very similar on the personal and institutional
levels: it involves an imbalance of power and behavior that
consistently undermines its victim, securing compliance and
submission and reinforcing the bully’s sense of superiority and
legitimacy. The similarity, this book tells us, is not a
coincidence. Applying the concept of the “sociological
imagination,” which links private problems and public issues,
authors Charles Derber and Yale Magrass argue that individual
bullying is an outgrowth—and a necessary function—of a larger
social phenomenon. Bullying is seen here as a structural problem
arising from systems organized around steep power
hierarchies—from the halls of the Pentagon, Congress, and
corporate offices to classrooms and playing fields and the
environment. Dominant people and institutions need to create a
culture in which violence and aggression are seen as natural and
just: one where individuals compete over who will be bully or
victim, and each is seen as deserving their fate within this
hierarchy. The larger the inequalities of power in society, or
among nations, or even across species, the more likely it is that
both institutional and personal bullying will become commonplace.
The authors see the life-long psychological scars interpersonal
bullying can bring, but believe it is almost impossible to reduce
such bullying without first challenging the institutions that breed
and encourage it. In the United States a system of intertwined
corporations, governments, and military institutions carries out
“systemic bullying” to create profits and sustain its own
power. While acknowledging the diversity and savagery of many other
bully nations, the authors contend that America, as the most
powerful nation in the world—and one that aggressively promotes
its system as a model—merits special attention. It is only by
recognizing the bullying built into this model that we can address
the real problem, and in this, Bully Nation makes a hopeful
beginning.
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