Stimulation
Whatever the infantile debates and arguments in the Big Brother house are actually about doesn't really matter. Oxo cubes, undercooked chicken, class, race, whatever. It really doesn't matter.
The interesting side effect is the debate in the outside world. The debate that focuses not on what was said but on what was meant. It's interesting because it looks behind the veneer of Political Correctness and provokes debate.
I happen to work with a witch. At least, I assume she is a witch - she looks like one. We rub along fine most of the time. I can have a chat with her in the coffee room at work and when I hear about how she's turned some traffic policeman in to a toad, I can say something along the lines of "you are a witch." But if I interrupt her in the middle of a presentation and point out the same thing in the same words but with an entirely different emphasis, it's a disciplinary offence. It doesn't even have to be words. She likes touching me on the arm. She thinks it's building bridges between us. I think it's creepy and borderline sexual harassment, but I know that she doesn't mean it that way and so I just put it down to cultural differences. I have culture, and she has something different.
The debate in the United Kingdom of a few countries and Wales is important. Is the behaviour that we're seeing racially motivated, or is it more down to a personality clash combined with extreme circumstances?
Racism - or any sort of automatic discrimination against an individual because of one aspect of their character or physical characteristics is nasty. It's a learned, indoctrinated behaviour that is focussed solely on hatred and generally comes hand in hand with jealousy and a lack of self esteem. It's to be pitied, in many ways.
Bullying is not nice either, and it's very unpleasant to watch on television. But I don't think I know anyone who has never been bullied, and who has never been a bully themselves. Maybe not consistently, but I genuinely believe that given the right pressures and the right circumstances we are all capable of being pushed in to bullying behaviours. Except Mother Theresa, obviously, because she's dead (poor taste joke deleted).
So, which is worse, I wonder, and by how much? Bullying someone because your racism is ingrained in you from an early age and you can't help yourself, or bullying because you just don't like them? And as a victim, which should you be more upset about - the one that you couldn't avoid, or the one that you have triggered.
Indeed, if you actively provoke a reaction can it truly be called bullying?
See what I mean about the debate?
19 January, 2007
