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Bullying, Everybody's Responsibility :: (Howard S. Emanuel)

To combat Bullying within the Workforce and Education system is the responsibility of us all...

By Howard S. Emanuel - 10th August 2006 - Back to News

BULLYING, EVERYBODY’S RESPONSIBILITY

25-Jul-2006

It seems some things just transfer down the generations with the accompanying discourse, let alone the actual event changing little over the years. To be fair there now seems to be a greater awareness of the impacts of bullying than there was in say the 1960s and 70s but we often seem as a society to continue to tolerate the intolerable for too long. Only when something is completely broken, only when demonstrable suffering has been endured it seems do we begin the long and arduous task of repairing or retrieving the situation.

With the emphasis we now have on mental health in the community and an associated understanding of the impacts of childhood experience on personality and character development, it seems odd even irresponsible to continue to talk much but act little on bullying in the community.

Perhaps this rather tragic situation is underpinned by the enormous ignorance that exists in the community in regards to human behaviour. It seems there are a great many people still that adhere to the dogma that when in trouble "one has to pull ones socks up and just get on with it". Such views are terribly arcane and naively suggest that we are all similar in our makeup and all react to life’s situations in the same manner. This is clearly not the case.

For some victims of bullying of course life is never the same, no matter what benevolent and complex repatriation measures we put in place. Oh for the day when as a society we commit to fix the root of the problem and not just throw buckets of money at the manifestation, when it’s often too late.

In a formal sense we have developed all sorts of policies and documents on bullying, mainly through the appropriate Departments of Human Services in State, Territory and Federal governments. We have it seems written reams of papers on the subject, indeed tomes, to the point where all schools and many workplaces have bullying policy documents in profusion.

But are these policies backed up with affirmative action that is as vigorous in its response to misdemeanours as the wording in the policy papers are. Are we matching the rhetoric with the physical resources that will enable us to offer all students and those in the workplace a safe and amiable environment in which to learn and work, an environment that will ensure they can concentrate on the task at hand and not be bothered, distracted and traumatised by the those that wish to harm them. Can we currently ensure that all who enter a collective body of people will in no way come out of that experience demeaned and degraded? Obviously we cant.

For bullying to be eradicated as much as is humanly possible we need to reconstruct from the beginning the way we understand human behaviour. Bullies it transpires have often been through traumatic and trying circumstances themselves, so to just punish the bully will not in one sense fix much at all, the problem will persist in many other settings. If we are serious about protecting people from the ravages and ill intent of their peers then we need to better understand what motivates the perpetrator.

Trying to determine just why people act in a certain manner is of course a complex business as we all to some extent have our behaviours determined if not dominated by our own special and unique circumstances. But these unique circumstances can also be influenced and determined by the broader values of the community or society in which we live and spend our lives. This moot point is just why it is so important that we establish a demonstrated social order, that we have at least even in very liberal societies such as ours, firm standards of behaviour and established tenets, that all are expected to adhere to.  Of course it is the hope of our policy makers, governments and thinkers in the community that these very tenets will encourage appropriate human behaviour.

It follows on then that individual behaviour can be linked to social values and standards, that in fact it is the responsibility of all of us to ensure that community standards are set in the right vein. To have otherwise mean as a community we will experience a greater level of dysfunctional behaviour than is acceptable.

So we should not in the case of the perpetrator or bully, just "shoot the messenger" so to speak by only punishing the bully, we should work hard to ensure that we all encourage those around us to fulfil their potential, so that we have less dissatisfied folk among us who will inevitably take out their frustrations, anxieties, and tensions on others, on those around them.

This point of establishing an order of behaviour becomes very relevant when we consider the settings in which bullying and victimisation can and does generally occur. The school place is the most obvious location in which children are victimised and traumatised.

If there is a firm commitment within the college community that all students are treated with dignity and concern, that governments provide sufficient resources to ensure that students who have special needs that cannot be met in the mainstream curriculum are provided for in designated programs there is less of an opportunity for any to feel alienated from the mainstream whilst present in the school community. This in turn can reduce anxieties based around peer exclusion and less of a reason to strike out against others and less of a motive to target a weaker prey to try and ensure someone else will share their pain and disquiet.

If the students feel valued and included in the school community, if they feel confident they can discuss concerns and problems with their peers and teachers, then it follows that a greater understanding of each other will occur.

When we have this understanding of each others circumstances we are more aware of what to expect in the way of behaviours from each other. If we understand that a young person may be for instance living in a difficult situation and can be prone to stress and the like, we can then take more careful concern of that person. We can in a sense pick up the early signs of an inclination to commit against another in the school setting and break the chain of actions that eventually lead to harmful imposition on another.

In a concerned and progressive college community there is also a greater opportunity to positively influence the behaviour of those who face demonstrable difficulties at home and in their personal lives. So whilst we may not be able in much of a way to influence the behavioural dynamics in the students home, we can provide a caring environment in which that young person can at least leave some of those anxieties behind them and dominate their behaviour with positive actions, rather than negative and destructive ones.

So in one sense we can argue very strongly that bullying, or victimisation is a responsibility of all of us, it is not appropriate to just demand that one who perpetrates against another should somehow reform instantly and break behaviour patters that are perhaps of many years standing. To do so can often only increase that person’s sense of isolation in the community.

The machine of society creates the social conditions of the day. Sometimes the inherent conditions even in prosperous societies are less than ideal and can subsequently stimulate unattractive manifestations and outcomes. Sometimes people are driven to poor behaviour due to social conditions and their intrinsic environment and sometimes it can be biological or genetic influences that encourage anti progressive behaviours.

Bullying is not a far off phenomenon, somehow distant from us, because it is often us or our children who are the victims of abuse and it is also as often our kin who are the perpetrators of such actions. Not many are truly alone in this society, someone knows the bully personally, either mum, dad, brother, sister etc and someone knows the victim. So we do have a personal responsibility in all this.

Governments of course play a rather different role in taking responsibility for bullying and other inappropriate behaviours. Because it is governments that to a large degree who create and maintain the conditions in which we live, through the development and application of policy. Governments, despite what many seem to think these days have an extremely important role in society in that all the areas of community activity and application have to be covered by policy outcomes. Another way of saying we have to manage things.

That is to say that for instance business has to be given an incentive to grow and create a robust economy, social policy must create a sense of balance and equality among the population and education, health and law and order structures must be created and maintained. Sometimes trying to balance all these responsibilities can be onerous indeed and sometimes a policy thrust that is deemed to be beneficial in one area can create a ruction or some instability in another. This instability can then in turn encourage unwanted outcomes such as unemployment, poverty and ill health and can subsequently stimulate inappropriate human behaviours as people wrestle with the difficulty of their personal position. So governments have to be very much in touch with the community and have a full and complex understanding of the society in which they operate.

Governments of course to a degree are reactive to what they feel people want, so the messages we send to government can and do influence the way they act and manage our affairs.

So whichever way we look at it we all have a shared responsibility for human behaviour that occurs among us, because somewhere along the way in an individuals life there can be circumstances thrust upon them by the conditions and environment in which they live. We create that environment through our own actions and by the actions of governments and those around us.

To just punish the bully is not only non-sensical in that it will in real terms achieve very little if anything at all, it is very much a scapegoat action on behalf of ourselves who should really act to ensure that as much as is possible society is shaped to encourage all to feel equal, contented, engaged and a part of the community in which they live.

Isolation, alienation and marginalisation are all negative outcomes for people and will in turn generally encourage and manifest negative and destructive behaviours in response to this situation. Sometimes if we were so inclined we could call some of these behaviours, bullying.

Regards,

Howard S. Emanuel

Mobile: 0400 158 896

E-mail: howard@howardemanuel.com

Web: www.HowardEmanuel.com

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: howard-emanuel@hotmail.com