You can take it that way if you wish. I do not believe you are correct. I've got a half-century of experience backing me up.
I must respect experience, including my own. Upon reflection, it appears as if I was putting words in your mouth. Thanks for seeing past that and addressing the point.
I understand; if you've read my threads on legalizing drugs, you'll know I have a couple hot buttons of my own. But don't worry, you can't be too assertive for me.
Thanks. Assurance is always nice.
Two thoughts regarding kids fighting. The first is that once upon a time, I was picked on at school. My dad finally got tired of me coming home crying and said if I came home again crying, he'd make me cry more. I believed him. I stood up to the bullies and the bullying stopped.
Preaching to the choire, sir. I fully agree. Where we differ is that I don't see it as standing up to them, I see it as self-defense and no different than 6 on 1 in an alleyway. I see it as an immediate and decisive escalation of force. I'm talking about seriously injuring the bully if necessary to defend yourself, not trading a couple broken noses and swollen knuckles and if the ego's were as swollen in your day as they were in my day it will escalate until the bully wrings your neck or you pull out his eyes, figuratively speaking. I mean immediate and decisive action. Which brings me directly to your next point
And the second is that kids whose parents teach them not to fight back when hit are breeding another generation of namby-pamby hand-wringing cowardly numb-skulls such as those we have as adults now.
Couldn't agree more, perhaps more so. When I say how serious violence is, it certainly doesn't mean to prostrate yourself to a boot-party. When I say violence is unacceptable, what would be more accepting than doing nothing and crying to the teacher? Violence is unacceptable, you put an end to it there. You don't teach the bully a lesson, you maim his ego along with his body.
We're not enlightened creatures. We're average, we're normal, we're mundane, and we fight. To quote Hobbes, life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." That's not to suggest that this is a good thing; it's just a thing. And it can't be avoided. So get on with life and quit worrying quite so much about how kids work things out on their own.
I never suggested that we're enlightened, I merely suggest that if the eventuality is known, get to the point. Someone assaults you, you don't cry to teacher, you don't have a little fist fight and shake hands, you don't keep running. You bite their nose off, claw out their eyes and make it clear you've had enough! You don't go through the process of being repeatedly assaulted and broken down, you disable the threat. If you can't, maybe the consequences won't be as bad as in the street, then again this whole topic reminds us of the unpredictable fragility of the human body.
Anyway, Bill, thanks for reading...I'm beat.
