Spring Break
Online bullying won't get your face broken
Yes, I Have A Point
Angelo Lanham
Issue date: 11/3/09 Section: Opinion
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"If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."
Your mother said it. Mine did.
And we both ignored that little gem, didn't we? Because it's just not fun to say nice things.
Typically, though, Mums gets around to telling you this one back when you were a wee tot.
Wee tots tend to go to elementary school, and elementary school students have the luxury of the most efficient and self-perpetuating pecking orders known to all humanity.
Basically, you pretty much know who you can and cannot mouth off to.
If you're the skinny kid in the corner, with thick glasses that sport a chic roll of tape bonding two halves at the bridge of the nose, you mouth off to no one.
The percentage of students you have the privilege of picking on increases with your weight class, and you quickly learn to punch your weight.
The kid belonging to the weight class above "taped-up glasses kid" gets to harass him, but not the slightly overweight kid who washed his mom's car with rocks - who is, conversely, picked on by the heavy kid who has his first tattoo at the age of 10, produced by his 12-year-old friend's tattoo gun, constructed by way of combining a cassette player motor and a guitar string.
That kid picks on everyone, and this pecking order sticks with us to the end.
You know not to mouth off to your boss, people of a stature more intimidating than your own or people who freak you out.
Methods of picking on those around you, arguably, become more sophisticated.
Instead of throwing rocks, we toss out thinly veiled passive-aggressive insults. We gripe about people we are too scared to tell off while standing around the proverbial water cooler.
Occasionally, "taped-up glasses kid" shows up to work with a violin case and ends up being more feared than "big bossman," but other than that, elementary school sets up the template that leads to the pecking order we, more or less, abide by until the day we die.
It's not the happiest arrangement.
The 10-year-old with the crude skull and crossbones tattoo becomes a bouncer, who has at one point gained eyelid tattoos and become even scarier. "Taped-up glasses kid" owns the company you work for, but you could still kick his ass. Everyone in between stays in between.
How about 20 more words of wisdom? Not Mumsy this time, but my good friend who is, more or less, wise beyond his years.
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