Scribble #80

Schools, playgrounds, clubs, cliques, fanbases, parties, etc. - inevitably, more than not, are full of kids and entitled, overemotional man-and-women-children being cruel to anyone who is not of their often-elitist group. If they are not ignoring "the Other", they impose on them, take advantage of them, make a show of breathing down their necks in order to incite fear and therefore control over them, make them feel small and weak and powerless. Scared. Silenced. To keep the social power to themselves. A lot of higher-ups - or to be apt, attention seekers always wanting more - achieve this through fear-mongering, lies, making nasty, ignorant, childish comments and threats, playing mind games, and even physical pushing and beating. They have one leader, a single representing "personality", who thrives on making others, including those in his circle, appear weak and ineffectual in order to make himself appear big, strong and powerful; all-knowing, always right, and almost godlike, so his ego is kept over-inflated. Yet he will never be satisfied; his thirst for power and wealth for the sake of it is insatiable. It risks destroying his humanity and decency along the way. So in his utterly selfish and entitled mind, being big and powerful means that he can do whatever he wants without consequence, because no one will challenge him; no one will call him out, overcompensating giant that he is. No one "popular", anyway, or too influential. "Leader" - or "dictator" or "tyrant" - is synonymous with "invincible" to him. Dividing people, separating them, segregating them, making them feel beaten down, worthless, useless, and less than human, putting himself before others, only thinking about himself, demanding "respect" (meaning: fear of him), desperately wanting to make himself appear immortal or like a god among his trembling peers, his underlings - that is how a poor, delusional, lonely coward thinks. It is near instability. Even insanity. Because he in fact fears his inferiors and what they are truly capable of more than anything else (other than his mortality), he will always try to justify his words and actions, make excuses; in order to keep himself in power. Unchallenged, normalized, it remains that way. Privilege is power, and a leader of that privilege - the only real virtue to him - will try absolutely anything to grasp it for himself, like his life depends on it (it doesn't; privilege, like everything else in social progress, can be shared widely, equally, and no harm will come of it whatsoever). Because to this "leader", might is right, not might for right. Keep the rich richer, and the poor poorer.

In children, this is called bullying. In adults, it's called politics.