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It's Time For Us To Defeat The Bullies

by Theresa Fritz Camoriano

I have always hated bullies.  In grade school, I often found myself coming to the defense of the kids who were being bullied, because I couldn't stand to see one person abusing another.  I just finished reading the book, Take the Bully by the Horns, by Sam Horn, which does a wonderful job of explaining the thought processes of bullies and of providing some good ideas of how to defeat bullies or at least of how to limit their ability to abuse us.  As I read that book, it struck me that tyrants and people who support excessive government are really nothing more than great big bullies! 

While a government that is limited to its legitimate functions of defending life, liberty, and property is a promoter of justice, a government that extends its use of force beyond those legitimate functions becomes an oppressor -- a bully.

The playground bully who threatens to beat you up if you don't give him your lunch money isn't very much different from the government bully that threatens to throw you in jail if you don't give it your money to spend as he wishes.

Bullies love having power over others.  And government has control of the only legalized use of force in society.

Bullies see the world as a zero sum game, in which they win by causing you to lose.  And those who want government to plunder and regulate the people they disfavor in order to benefit the people they favor see the world the same way.  As the bully, they fail to realize that we are all better off (especially the most disadvantaged among us) when people are not plundered and abused but rather are free to use all their resources in their individual creative and productive pursuits.

Bullies rely on the threat of force and on intimidation in order to maintain their power.  And the government's threat of arresting us and throwing us into prison works to keep most of us compliant, even when we strongly disagree with the government's actions. 

One characteristic of bullies is dissonance -- they say one thing, but do another.  Does this sound like anyone you have heard lately?  Maybe George W. Bush claiming to be in favor of free trade while enacting protectionist tariffs for the steel industry, or Tom Daschle claiming to favor all kinds of environmental regulations, while taking special pains to exempt his own state from those regulations?  Or maybe that friend who demands that you support government schools if you care about education but who sends his own kids to an expensive private school!

Bullies love to keep you confused and off-balance.  Anyone listening to a typical politician answering a question on nearly any subject  should recognize this tactic!

Bullies are arrogant, and they like to keep their victims helpless and powerless.  Similarly, governments tell us that we are too stupid to take care of ourselves, or that we are the victims of someone and need them to protect us from our oppressors.  (No thought that the oppressor and bully might really be the government!) 

If you think that more government regulations or more taxes are the solution to any problem, please take a look in the mirror.  Then you will be able to see what a bully looks like!

(Next week, how to defeat bullies.)

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