Bullying Has Been Around for 7,000 Years

One of the media's latest obsessions with children's issues these days is based on the concept of “bullying.” To hear the media tell the bullying story somehow children are different these days versus hundreds of previous generations. They lead us to believe most children can generally be cast into two basic camps: unrepentant brutes or helpless victims of bullying. Adult intervention is now called for. In fact it finally seems so simple. Researchers have the solution! Throw a few billion taxpayer dollars at research into bullying and then use billions more in taxpayer dollars for anti-bullying programs.
It should be intuitive to anyone except those who are willing to throw tax dollars at anything that bullies have been around since the beginning of recorded history. Some kids are just meaner than others and many have a bossy-bully side while in social situations. Most bullying takes place.....in the home.
What hasn’t been around for decades is the anti-bully industry. Victim farming is also a much more recent cultural phenomenon wherein grant seeking types mine government agencies for dollars. Convincing government to throw money at anti-bully programs that don't work is lucrative.
Leave it to those who love to engage in desperate searches for new victims to try to take the bait. Convinced they can eliminate something so normal, that has been around for millenniums, and has not destroyed society. Consider this thought provoking article by Helen Guldberg on the bullying hysteria. News New Mexico

Bullying Has Been Around for 7,000 Years