This is PARAMOUNT. If you live in one of the states that has adopted anti-bullying laws then documentation is KEY. If you decide to tackle a bullying situation, familiarize yourself with your states anti-bullying laws. Get yourself a notebook and document dates, times, names, places, and what happened. Don't get into lengthy judgements and feelings, just list the facts, those are enough. Do not assume nor expect that the people you are dealing with will abide by the same code of ethics that you do. Even if you decide not to do anything with that documentation, it may be a very valuable source of information for someone else that is willing to take on that fight.
Bullying Epidemic
- Thread starter #@&5&49
- Start date
This is PARAMOUNT. If you live in one of the states that has adopted anti-bullying laws then documentation is KEY. If you decide to tackle a bullying situation, familiarize yourself with your states anti-bullying laws. Get yourself a notebook and document dates, times, names, places, and what happened. Don't get into lengthy judgements and feelings, just list the facts, those are enough. Do not assume nor expect that the people you are dealing with will abide by the same code of ethics that you do. Even if you decide not to do anything with that documentation, it may be a very valuable source of information for someone else that is willing to take on that fight.
Nixie
Resurrected
- MBTI
- ENTP
You can also either email a copy of your information to yourself or write it down and mail it to yourself (don't open) to prove "time"--or when you wrote it. It tends to look better because it shows events proven to have been documented over time. Additionally, almost all protocol for dealing with bullying (EEO and others) tend to require that you notify your employer in some way of the activity and give them the opportunity to fix things. It is always best to notify in writing so you have a written record of your complaints. It is best to shy away from dramatic or overly emotional text and remain professional. You should familiarize yourself with the federal and state laws, because, like I said, it isn't enough to just document behavior, in many instances you also have to show that the company/employer did nothing when it was brought to their attention.
[MENTION=3096]Nixie[/MENTION], thats a really good point about the need to notify your employer and give them the opportunity to rectify the situation. Unfortunately, in extreme cases and toxic environments the problem with that is most people are too afraid of retaliation to do this, and rightly so. However, as you pointed out, it is a necessary step in the process. Anti-bullying laws are so new and from what I've read only 11 states have adopted them. I'm not sure anyone has actually sued as a result of anti-bullying laws. If you know of a case please let me know.
When companies have to start paying out money as a result of bullying lawsuits, that's when we'll start to see changes. This also means that the lawsuits will most likely entail extreme cases of bullying. This will eventually help all people because it will bring bullying into peoples awareness and that will filter down and help all cases of bullying. In other words, it's a process. Anti-bullying laws are not a replacement for healthy interpersonal communication skills. They are there to protect peoples right to a healthy environment. However, if people cannot or do not know what a healthy environment is, the anti-bullying laws will be there to enforce peoples basic rights. It's unfortunate that it's come to this, but it is needed and it was also inevitable.
When companies have to start paying out money as a result of bullying lawsuits, that's when we'll start to see changes. This also means that the lawsuits will most likely entail extreme cases of bullying. This will eventually help all people because it will bring bullying into peoples awareness and that will filter down and help all cases of bullying. In other words, it's a process. Anti-bullying laws are not a replacement for healthy interpersonal communication skills. They are there to protect peoples right to a healthy environment. However, if people cannot or do not know what a healthy environment is, the anti-bullying laws will be there to enforce peoples basic rights. It's unfortunate that it's come to this, but it is needed and it was also inevitable.
Nixie
Resurrected
- MBTI
- ENTP
I'm not going to lie, it feels like you are fighting windmills with a wooden sword, it does. So much depends on the strength you have inside to refuse to lie down and just take it. A lot of times, the easiest thing isn't even close to doing the right thing. Worse, often the right thing means putting yourself out there and taking risk.
When you look at all of the energy being devoted to raising bullying awareness over recent years and the fact that an estimated 35% of adults are bullied in the workplace, you would think there would be more practical strategies for employees and businesses dealing with workplace bullying. It seems most of the energy has gone into targeting bullying behavior at the childrens level. Strategies at the childrens level consist of;
a) preventing bullying children from becoming bullying adults
b) teaching children who are victims of bullying how to be more assertive
c) helping bystanders understand how powerful a "do nothing" role plays in helping to spread bullying
d) educating adults about how to address bullying and how to be good role models
While targeting the bullying epidemic at the childrens level is a really good strategy, it leaves a lot of employees and businesses dealing with workplace bullying at a loss as to how to deal with it.
The below info is pasted from the Workplace Bullying Institute Website. It isn't bad, but basically if you live in a state that hasn't incorporated anti-bullying laws you are at a real disadvantage. However, even if you live in one of the 11 states that has adopted anti-bullying laws it's still an uphill battle until the laws become nationwide. Here's the advice WBI gives for employees (I'm still researching what employers can do to address bullying in their businesses).
The WBI 3-Step Action Plan - What Bullied Targets Can Do
Three things that are simple to list, but very difficult to accomplish. It's an uphill, David 'n Goliath, struggle.
Step One - Name it! Legitimize Yourself!
Choose a name — bullying, psychological harassment, psychological violence, emotional abuse — to offset the effect of being told that because your problem is not illegal, you cannot possibly have a problem. This makes people feel illegitimate. The cycle of self-blame and anxiety begins. The source of the problem is external. The bully decides how to target and how, when, and where to harm people. You did not invite, nor want, the systematic campaign of psychological assaults and interference with your work. Think about it. No sane person wakes up each day hoping to be humiliated or berated at work. There is tremendous healing power in naming. Hard to believe at first, but very true.
Step Two - Take Time Off to Heal & Launch a Counterattack
Accomplish five (5) important tasks while on sick leave or short-term disability (granted by your physician).
1) Check your mental health with a professional (not the employer's EAP). Get emotionally stable enough to make a clear-headed decision to stay and fight, or to leave for your health's sake. Your humanity makes you vulnerable; it is not a weakness, but a sign of superiority. Work Trauma, by definition, is an overwhelming, extraordinary experience.
2) Check your physical health. Stress-related diseases rarely carry obvious warning signals (e.g., hypertension - the silent killer). Read the current research on work stress and heart disease.
3) Research state and federal legal options (in a quarter of bullying cases, discrimination plays a role). Talk to an attorney. Maybe a demand letter can be written. Look for internal policies (harassment, violence, respect) for violations to report (fully expecting retaliation).
4) Gather data about the economic impact the bully has had on the employer. Put dollars and cents to each instance of turnover (at least 2x the salary of the person affected) to include all expenses associated with replacement (recruitment, demoralization from understaffing, interviewing, lost time while newbie learns job), and absenteeism, and lost productivity from interference by the bullying.
5) Start job search for next position.
Step Three - Expose the Bully
The real risk was sustained when you were first targeted (Targets lose their job - involuntarily or by choice for their health's sake - in 77.7% of cases). It is no riskier to attempt to dislodge the bully. Retaliation is a certainty. Have your escape route planned in advance. Remember, good employers purge bullies, most promote them. Make the business case that the bully is "too expensive to keep." Present the data gathered (in Step 2) to let the highest level person you can reach (not HR) know about the bully's impact on the organization. Obviously in family-owned, or small businesses, this is impossible (so leave once targeted). Stick to the bottom line. If you drift into tales about the emotional impact of the bully's harassment, you will be discounted and discredited.
Give the employer one chance. If they side with the bully because of personal friendship ("he's a great conversationalist and a lunch buddy") or rationalize the mistreatment ("you have to understand that that is just how she is"), you will have to leave the job for your health's sake. However, some employers are looking for reasons to purge their very difficult bully. You are the internal consultant with the necessary information. Help good employers purge.
The nature of your departure — either bringing sunshine to the dark side or leaving shrouded in silent shame — determines how long it takes you to rebound and get that next job, to function fully and to restore compromised health. Tell everyone about the petty tyrant for your health's sake. You have nothing to be ashamed about. You were only doing the job you once loved.
Answering critics of our approach ..... Pragmatists argue that our 3-Step Method will only get you fired. They are right in most cases. So, it is important for you to know why we suggest what we do. Our method accomplishes four goals:
Goal 1: Your personal health must be the priority or you will not live long enough to take another job. You have to discover if stress-related health complications have begun and take steps to reverse them. Stress exacerbates diseases that can kill. Put your health, not your job, first. See a physician, ask for blood tests related to stress-induced harm. See a good therapist to restore your faith in your own worthiness.
Goal 2: The true purpose of the bullying-costs-data-collection-project (Step 2, Part 4) is to distract you from the emotional damage. Too many wounded targets crawl between the bed sheets and can't get out. You need something to do to continue to function, to bounce back. This task of estimating the fiscal impact of bullying is not only factual and informative for the organization (which it promptly chooses to ignore), but the employer's response to the facts will help convince you about the irrationality of the entire bullying process. You didn't cause it and they don't seem to care if it ever stops. They are too afraid to do the right thing.
Goal 3: Compel employer responsibility for putting you in harm's way. No one is responsible for being bullied, for inviting the misery upon themselves. The employer has known about the bully before and chosen to retain him or her (attorneys call it negligent retention). Employers want a catfight between employees so that they can blame it on "personality conflict." The reality is that employers establish all conditions of work. If there are poorly skilled managers or executives, it is because of a dereliction of duty. Employers are lazy and trust on-the-job experiences to teach people to be good and humane managers. This is wrong. The leadership team is responsible for all bullying! It would not happen without executives' explicit or tacit approval. So, hold their feet to the fire. Expose the bully. Demand changes (for the sake of the organization).
Goal 4: Take control of your departure from the place. WBI research found that you have a 66% chance of losing your job once targeted. Exposing the bully is more about your mental health than being an effective way to get the bully fired. Trauma is intensified if you leave the job (voluntarily or after being terminated) if you do not leave holding your head high and pointing accusatory fingers at the wrongdoers. In other words, since you are most likely to leave, once targeted, leave by telling everyone what happened to you and by whose hands. Targets who skulk away in silence, shrouded in personal shame, suffer the most. It can take a year or more to rebound to the point of being able to seek work. Those who leave proudly, bounce back the fastest.
Contrast our approach with traditional advice from HR types, coaches, & "career experts".....
Things NOT to do after discovering you are the target of workplace bullying:
• Do not feel guilty for not confronting your bully in response to the aggression. If you could have, you would have. You are not made that way.
• Do not limit your decisions to act in ways that sacrifice personal integrity and health just to survive to keep a paycheck. Survival strategies alone create even more serious long-term health and career problems. If the place will not change, plan your escape.
• Do not wait for the impact of bullying to fade with time. It must be stopped for the effects on you to stop.
• Do hold the employer accountable for putting you in harm's way. It is not your personal responsibility as the victim to fix the mess you did not start. Employers control the work environment. When you are injured as a result of exposure to that environment, make the employer own the responsibility to fix it.
• Do not try to reinvent yourself as a political animal. If you would have been able to be cutthroat, you would have acted accordingly. You do not have to mimic the unethical bully to counter her or his misconduct.
• Do not trust HR to give you advice that serves your own best interests -- they work for management and are management. Simple facts.
• Be wary of EAP counselors until they have proven to you that your confidential case details will not be reported to management and that they understand how work environments affect individuals' health.
• Do not ask for relief from the bully's boss. That is the person who loves her or him most. (And if there is no love there, there is fear. The boss fears the bully and cannot stop him or her.)
• Do not tell your story from a purely emotional injury angle. It scares away potential supporters.
• Do not share your voluminous documentation with anyone at work. No one cares as much as you do. In the wrong hands, it can be used against you.
• Do not ask others (HR, union reps, management) to make the bully stop for your sake. They will disappoint you. Rather, you will make the business case and ask them to stop bullying for their own self-interests.
• Do not agree to be treated by any mental health professionals who cannot believe your experience and want simply to change you so that you will not trigger similar reactions from future bullies.
• Do not pay a retainer to an attorney until you've exhausted cheaper alternatives to get your employer to take your complaint seriously.
• Do not confide in anyone at work until they have demonstrated (and not just talked about) loyalty to you.
• For more information we recommend reading The Bully At Work by Dr. Gary Namie and Dr. Ruth Namie (Sourcebooks)
a) preventing bullying children from becoming bullying adults
b) teaching children who are victims of bullying how to be more assertive
c) helping bystanders understand how powerful a "do nothing" role plays in helping to spread bullying
d) educating adults about how to address bullying and how to be good role models
While targeting the bullying epidemic at the childrens level is a really good strategy, it leaves a lot of employees and businesses dealing with workplace bullying at a loss as to how to deal with it.
The below info is pasted from the Workplace Bullying Institute Website. It isn't bad, but basically if you live in a state that hasn't incorporated anti-bullying laws you are at a real disadvantage. However, even if you live in one of the 11 states that has adopted anti-bullying laws it's still an uphill battle until the laws become nationwide. Here's the advice WBI gives for employees (I'm still researching what employers can do to address bullying in their businesses).
The WBI 3-Step Action Plan - What Bullied Targets Can Do
Three things that are simple to list, but very difficult to accomplish. It's an uphill, David 'n Goliath, struggle.
Step One - Name it! Legitimize Yourself!
Choose a name — bullying, psychological harassment, psychological violence, emotional abuse — to offset the effect of being told that because your problem is not illegal, you cannot possibly have a problem. This makes people feel illegitimate. The cycle of self-blame and anxiety begins. The source of the problem is external. The bully decides how to target and how, when, and where to harm people. You did not invite, nor want, the systematic campaign of psychological assaults and interference with your work. Think about it. No sane person wakes up each day hoping to be humiliated or berated at work. There is tremendous healing power in naming. Hard to believe at first, but very true.
Step Two - Take Time Off to Heal & Launch a Counterattack
Accomplish five (5) important tasks while on sick leave or short-term disability (granted by your physician).
1) Check your mental health with a professional (not the employer's EAP). Get emotionally stable enough to make a clear-headed decision to stay and fight, or to leave for your health's sake. Your humanity makes you vulnerable; it is not a weakness, but a sign of superiority. Work Trauma, by definition, is an overwhelming, extraordinary experience.
2) Check your physical health. Stress-related diseases rarely carry obvious warning signals (e.g., hypertension - the silent killer). Read the current research on work stress and heart disease.
3) Research state and federal legal options (in a quarter of bullying cases, discrimination plays a role). Talk to an attorney. Maybe a demand letter can be written. Look for internal policies (harassment, violence, respect) for violations to report (fully expecting retaliation).
4) Gather data about the economic impact the bully has had on the employer. Put dollars and cents to each instance of turnover (at least 2x the salary of the person affected) to include all expenses associated with replacement (recruitment, demoralization from understaffing, interviewing, lost time while newbie learns job), and absenteeism, and lost productivity from interference by the bullying.
5) Start job search for next position.
Step Three - Expose the Bully
The real risk was sustained when you were first targeted (Targets lose their job - involuntarily or by choice for their health's sake - in 77.7% of cases). It is no riskier to attempt to dislodge the bully. Retaliation is a certainty. Have your escape route planned in advance. Remember, good employers purge bullies, most promote them. Make the business case that the bully is "too expensive to keep." Present the data gathered (in Step 2) to let the highest level person you can reach (not HR) know about the bully's impact on the organization. Obviously in family-owned, or small businesses, this is impossible (so leave once targeted). Stick to the bottom line. If you drift into tales about the emotional impact of the bully's harassment, you will be discounted and discredited.
Give the employer one chance. If they side with the bully because of personal friendship ("he's a great conversationalist and a lunch buddy") or rationalize the mistreatment ("you have to understand that that is just how she is"), you will have to leave the job for your health's sake. However, some employers are looking for reasons to purge their very difficult bully. You are the internal consultant with the necessary information. Help good employers purge.
The nature of your departure — either bringing sunshine to the dark side or leaving shrouded in silent shame — determines how long it takes you to rebound and get that next job, to function fully and to restore compromised health. Tell everyone about the petty tyrant for your health's sake. You have nothing to be ashamed about. You were only doing the job you once loved.
Answering critics of our approach ..... Pragmatists argue that our 3-Step Method will only get you fired. They are right in most cases. So, it is important for you to know why we suggest what we do. Our method accomplishes four goals:
Goal 1: Your personal health must be the priority or you will not live long enough to take another job. You have to discover if stress-related health complications have begun and take steps to reverse them. Stress exacerbates diseases that can kill. Put your health, not your job, first. See a physician, ask for blood tests related to stress-induced harm. See a good therapist to restore your faith in your own worthiness.
Goal 2: The true purpose of the bullying-costs-data-collection-project (Step 2, Part 4) is to distract you from the emotional damage. Too many wounded targets crawl between the bed sheets and can't get out. You need something to do to continue to function, to bounce back. This task of estimating the fiscal impact of bullying is not only factual and informative for the organization (which it promptly chooses to ignore), but the employer's response to the facts will help convince you about the irrationality of the entire bullying process. You didn't cause it and they don't seem to care if it ever stops. They are too afraid to do the right thing.
Goal 3: Compel employer responsibility for putting you in harm's way. No one is responsible for being bullied, for inviting the misery upon themselves. The employer has known about the bully before and chosen to retain him or her (attorneys call it negligent retention). Employers want a catfight between employees so that they can blame it on "personality conflict." The reality is that employers establish all conditions of work. If there are poorly skilled managers or executives, it is because of a dereliction of duty. Employers are lazy and trust on-the-job experiences to teach people to be good and humane managers. This is wrong. The leadership team is responsible for all bullying! It would not happen without executives' explicit or tacit approval. So, hold their feet to the fire. Expose the bully. Demand changes (for the sake of the organization).
Goal 4: Take control of your departure from the place. WBI research found that you have a 66% chance of losing your job once targeted. Exposing the bully is more about your mental health than being an effective way to get the bully fired. Trauma is intensified if you leave the job (voluntarily or after being terminated) if you do not leave holding your head high and pointing accusatory fingers at the wrongdoers. In other words, since you are most likely to leave, once targeted, leave by telling everyone what happened to you and by whose hands. Targets who skulk away in silence, shrouded in personal shame, suffer the most. It can take a year or more to rebound to the point of being able to seek work. Those who leave proudly, bounce back the fastest.
Contrast our approach with traditional advice from HR types, coaches, & "career experts".....
Things NOT to do after discovering you are the target of workplace bullying:
• Do not feel guilty for not confronting your bully in response to the aggression. If you could have, you would have. You are not made that way.
• Do not limit your decisions to act in ways that sacrifice personal integrity and health just to survive to keep a paycheck. Survival strategies alone create even more serious long-term health and career problems. If the place will not change, plan your escape.
• Do not wait for the impact of bullying to fade with time. It must be stopped for the effects on you to stop.
• Do hold the employer accountable for putting you in harm's way. It is not your personal responsibility as the victim to fix the mess you did not start. Employers control the work environment. When you are injured as a result of exposure to that environment, make the employer own the responsibility to fix it.
• Do not try to reinvent yourself as a political animal. If you would have been able to be cutthroat, you would have acted accordingly. You do not have to mimic the unethical bully to counter her or his misconduct.
• Do not trust HR to give you advice that serves your own best interests -- they work for management and are management. Simple facts.
• Be wary of EAP counselors until they have proven to you that your confidential case details will not be reported to management and that they understand how work environments affect individuals' health.
• Do not ask for relief from the bully's boss. That is the person who loves her or him most. (And if there is no love there, there is fear. The boss fears the bully and cannot stop him or her.)
• Do not tell your story from a purely emotional injury angle. It scares away potential supporters.
• Do not share your voluminous documentation with anyone at work. No one cares as much as you do. In the wrong hands, it can be used against you.
• Do not ask others (HR, union reps, management) to make the bully stop for your sake. They will disappoint you. Rather, you will make the business case and ask them to stop bullying for their own self-interests.
• Do not agree to be treated by any mental health professionals who cannot believe your experience and want simply to change you so that you will not trigger similar reactions from future bullies.
• Do not pay a retainer to an attorney until you've exhausted cheaper alternatives to get your employer to take your complaint seriously.
• Do not confide in anyone at work until they have demonstrated (and not just talked about) loyalty to you.
• For more information we recommend reading The Bully At Work by Dr. Gary Namie and Dr. Ruth Namie (Sourcebooks)
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As Nixie points out, fighting the bullying epidemic is like "fighting windmills with wooden swords". BUT nothing changes unless people actively participate in changing it. This is why it's important to get involved in advocacy groups such as The Healthy Workplace Bill and other advocacy groups fighting for healthy respectful environments. This is why it's also important to discuss it, identify it, and educate people about it. These things bring bullying out in the open making it more and more difficult for people to hide from the fact that it does exist and it is a problem. Basically, it's just like the old saying goes, "If you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem".
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ThisIsWhoIAm
is best pony
- MBTI
- INFJ
It's a shame someone so intelligent and insightful would act this way. I stood up against abusive bosses a couple times. It felt really weird that nobody else around me joined me, but either way i got my wish both times. Was tough indeed, but i think it not only helped me, but helped all the employees around me.
Gaze
Donor
- MBTI
- INFPishy
It's not a shame. Has nothing to do with not wanting to help. It has more to do with the feeling someone may have that speaking up may make things worse or won't help any. In most situations where someone feels they are just another worker, they'res a feeling of powerlessness. I have no problem being supportive of someone if they are mistreated. I'd probably be the one to encourage them to report or listen to them. So, I am not sure why it would be shameful. It's a bit judgmental to say it's shameful. Fact is, you can make someone's situation worse if you are not careful about how you handle these kinds of situations. And for me, it would be easier to quit the job. I've been through enough verbal and emotional bullying from childhood to adulthood to know what it's like and how it feels. I've defended people being abused outside of work environments and been supportive of others where i could be, and done so when others weren't there to support me when I went through it. I've had people stand by and publicly embarrass me and I had to deal with it alone with others just looking on and doing nothing. So, judging me isn't really appropriate since you don't know me and what I've been through.
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JGirl
no chocolate flavored gum? wow
- MBTI
- INFJ
- Enneagram
- 5
i would never tolerate being 'bullied' and i would not allow it to happen to anyone in my earshot either. it's a shame that it's still practiced in adulthood, but it's not an epidemic - it's always been this way. perhaps not as obvious then because people are more vocal now, but it's not any worse than it ever was.
muir
Banned
- MBTI
- INFJ
There will be no improvements made by the system to reduce bullying in real terms
The system itself is created by bullying people to be a reflection of themselves
Bullying in the workplace is merely a symptom of a system created by bullys. There are many other negative symptoms of this system for example damage to the environment, war, crime, various social ills etc
People can discuss policy and strategy for trying to deal with work place bullying until they are blue in the face but they will see no improvements
The only way to deal with this problem and all the other problems is to recognise that it is a symptom of a coercive system which itself is the product of bullies and that the system itself needs to be changed so that the bullies are no longer empowered and instead the community is able to run things for themselves
There are a million different causes that people fight for from trying to save the whales to trying to reduce poverty to work place bullying etc........all are symptoms of a sick system and no progress is going to be made until everyone focusses their dispersed energies onto the core cancer itself that is causing all the negative symptoms
You can see bullying being carried out from the top down in our society eg the military is used by the government to bully weaker nations....that toxicity then drains down through society poisoning the soul of the nation
Its a system created by predatory bullies where shit rolls down hill; if you're at the bottom of the system....get ready for a shit sandwich
The system itself is created by bullying people to be a reflection of themselves
Bullying in the workplace is merely a symptom of a system created by bullys. There are many other negative symptoms of this system for example damage to the environment, war, crime, various social ills etc
People can discuss policy and strategy for trying to deal with work place bullying until they are blue in the face but they will see no improvements
The only way to deal with this problem and all the other problems is to recognise that it is a symptom of a coercive system which itself is the product of bullies and that the system itself needs to be changed so that the bullies are no longer empowered and instead the community is able to run things for themselves
There are a million different causes that people fight for from trying to save the whales to trying to reduce poverty to work place bullying etc........all are symptoms of a sick system and no progress is going to be made until everyone focusses their dispersed energies onto the core cancer itself that is causing all the negative symptoms
You can see bullying being carried out from the top down in our society eg the military is used by the government to bully weaker nations....that toxicity then drains down through society poisoning the soul of the nation
Its a system created by predatory bullies where shit rolls down hill; if you're at the bottom of the system....get ready for a shit sandwich
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[MENTION=6801]ThisIsWhoIAm[/MENTION], I think everyone has a different way of dealing with bullying. It's like any other really difficult situation, people have to find a way to handle it in the best way they can, a way that works for them. My way is going to be completely different than another persons way, is it better, I dunno, it's definitely different, can we learn from each other, absolutely. If we have the same goal and pool our resources we have that much more of a chance to create a healthy environment :love:
ThisIsWhoIAm
is best pony
- MBTI
- INFJ
We must create a multi national terror organization and A bomb everywhere, after we get out of our bunkers we will create the world as it should be. *rolls eyes*
ThisIsWhoIAm
is best pony
- MBTI
- INFJ
Alright.
[MENTION=1871]muir[/MENTION], I think you're right, it does roll down hill and bullying in everyday life is the result of a much more pervasive problem. I fight it at a people level as opposed to a large scale system level. I appeal to peoples humanity and work towards providing practical tools people can use in their everyday lives. But as you point out, the problem in the trenches is only the result of much larger problems. I look at it from the stand point of what can I do in my immediate environment to improve the circumstance and atmosphere. I think we're battling the same monster, I'm just biting its toes while you're cutting its juggler. Thank you for your perspective, it's appreciated.
muir
Banned
- MBTI
- INFJ
I was thinking of something more along the lines of a global general strike where enough of the workers agree to down tools until the system is changed. This would be acheived peacefully
Of course this would require a large amount of organisation across national borders but i believe we have already seen the first steps being taken by the various occupy movements around the world that have all formed into a network. Then there are other groups with global reach such as the Industrial Workers of the World Trade Union (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Workers_of_the_World) that could play an active role in unifying the resistance
Also the world social forum could help organise such a move: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_social_forum
muir
Banned
- MBTI
- INFJ
I worked for a while in mental health and quickly realised that the problem was not a genetic problem. The problem was an environmental problem. Something was wrong about our society that was making people anxious
Now you can treat each of those individuals eg you can use the current method of containment ie drug them and lock them up or you could use a more expensive method of providing each with extensive therapy and support but the reality is that society itself is off balance so it is a like a factory churning out off balance people.
The factory is just going to keep churning out anxious people and in fact this process may even worsen with the economy so the system in place to 'treat' these people will just come under more and more strain
Treating the symptoms (anxious individuals) will not stop more anxious individuals being created. The only thing that will do that is changing the factory itself so that instead it churns out healthy and happy people and then lots of money doesn;t need to be spent on 'treatment' because PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE
You can try and solve everything at the individual level but you may end up feeling swamped and burned out and dispondant because no matter how many people you save there will just be more and more churcned out by the factory (society...which is like a meat grinder, grinding people up)
I'm not saying don't help individuals....i'm just saying if the war is really to be won then we have to think bigger
ThisIsWhoIAm
is best pony
- MBTI
- INFJ
What kind of strike? who will strike exactly?
muir
Banned
- MBTI
- INFJ
Do you need to know what to report to your superiors? You have left the Israeli military right?
The workers could strike....you know....all those that work for a living including you
When everyone gets sick of being a 9-5 worker drone and of seeing their taxpayer money being given to the bankers or used to fight illegal wars that profit the corporations.
Of course some people are still immersed in the consumer dream....they're clinging to it and won't let go for a while, but for many it is proving a nightmare so more and more people are feeling like they have less and les to lose
Revolution is in the air....people are protesting all around the world
All it needs is a level of coordination....a coordinated effort because the el-ite need us to run their economy. So if we all agree to stop playing their game the game stops and then we can change the game to a more inclusive game where everyone is taken care of.....and that means the palestineans as well