Do you know the difference between a terrorist and a bully?
Is there a difference from a work perspective?
Terrorists attempt to kill publicly and bullies try to devastate their victims secretly. Is the end result different? No, as people’s lives are destroyed! And when these lives are destroyed dreams become empty, good feelings are lost and relationships end.
In business you need dreams, good feeling and relationships. Without these essential components an organization will cease to function.
So what can you do with these bullies? I believe that good people can weed them out. They can do this by;
- Identifying how the business is enabling the bully.
- Put an end to the enabling structure in the business.
Does this make sense?
When will you take action?
Tim, a good question and two good ideas for combating the problems of both terrorism and bullying.
However, one of the reasons that both terrorism and bullying are becoming increasingly prevalent is the “softening” of Western society because of the pervasive effects of political correctness, a sense of entitlement and several generations living at an unsustainably high level of comfort.
Pacifism may be an admirable cause and a virtuous ideal. Regrettably there are times when the only way to achieve peace (and an absence of terrorism and bullying) is by using strength to defend our core values.
Sadly, today, it seems that those who do stand up for what is right and defend those values are villified for being, aggressive, insensitive, war-mongering, homo or Islamo – phobic.
Or any of many other terms inspired by a mob mentality with a penchant for lynching by social media and urged to greater heights of irresponsibility by a mainstream media devoted to promoting socialism.
Doing or saying the right thing is equally dangerous in school, the work place or the community.
On the need to combat ISIS, our minister raised the question of whether a just war is better than a sinful peace.
Regrettably, political correctness promotes a sinful peace which only a war, just or otherwise, and waged on many fronts, will restore a lasting and honourable, peace.
Peter, while I understand your focus and your concern about political correctness, I have concerns about your premise. The reason I say that is because of all of the interviews I’ve conducted the victims of bullying. for your information these interviews go back as far as 1992. I don’t believe that all bullying is due to the ‘softening’ of Western society. I write that because with all my interviews of both men and women who had been both physically and mentally abused showed me that the people that were abused were done so by some very self-focused, thinned-skinned and controlling individuals. I can’t understand how political correctness made these mean people do what they did. I believe it is a character flaw that needs to be treated, not labeled as a form of political correctness.
Tim, perhaps I did not adequately explain my point.
My point is that political correctness (which in my mind is synonymous with a softening of the West) labels people who stand up to bullying on a personal level, or to terrorists on a national or societal level, as aggressors, violent etc.
It seems modern society would rather treat an increasing number of victims than encourage those victims to stand up for themselves and to take harsh measures to deal with the offenders.
The harsh treatment seems to be reserved for (generally male) people who are alleged to have put some mildly offensive comment in social media before they have had a chance to defend themselves in court. Stupid as that may be, and who amongst us has not at some time told a joke that would be offensive to someone, somewhere, it does not warrant a career- ending virtual lynching.
I do not for a moment think that political correctness has made people with the character flaws you mention, into bullies or mean people.
Political correctness has ham-strung some of those victims who would like to retaliate and emasculated the forces of law and order and others in society who would like to deal with those mean people, with the harshness they deserve.
I know that I grew up in a different era and in a much more “macho” society, but we dealt with school boy bullies by punching them on the nose if all else failed, without having to worry about being expelled from school, sent for counselling or being hauled off to the police for exhibiting violent tendencies.
My complaint against political correctness is that by preventing good people doing and saying, what is right, it allows the bad and mean ones too much opportunity to be bad and mean with too few consequences if they get caught.
Peter, first of all I have enjoyed this exchange. Secondly I must be missing something. I say that because my original post was about knowing the difference between a terrorist and a bully, and as I said there isn’t any difference. Which means to you that the effects of terrorism and bullying on the victims are far worse than anything I can think of. I don’t understand why you think that political correctness is preventing good people from speaking out. Luckily we can speak out. Maybe political correctness has made people tone down the way we use our words so that we are listened to closer. Or do we need to be like the man in the movie Network, when he stated; “I’m mad as Hell and I am not going to take it anymore!” The choice is ours isn’t it? Thankfully we do have the choice.
Tim, I too am enjoying the exchange immensely.
I believe our opinions are very closely aligned, but that I am not expressing myself as clearly in writing as I hope I do verbally.
Perhaps we can continue the discussion next Tuesday when we will have some uninterrupted time on the way to London.