Be a hero
My blog today deviates from the ‘nutrition for health’ theme, addressing emotional health instead. It’s easy to look around and see the evidence of a generally unhealthy people - I’m talking about the human race here. For example, the way that (less than) 1 percent of the people on the planet control 99 percent of its resources. That is unbalanced and extremely unhealthy. When you get right down to it, most people feel pretty powerless - and there’s a good reason behind that - every single one of us 99 percent relies on an entity with more influence, more control, more power to help us get what we need to survive. People could not live a relatively healthy life in today’s world without water, without fuel - be it gas or electricity or car fuel - without food, and clothing and transportation and a roof (or a tent). And these are just the things we need, to say nothing of the things the media tells us we want, like faster cars, bigger houses, sassier clothes, more expensive jewellery and the newest electronics. We rely on strong entities to provide these items for us in exchange for money, which we get by selling our services - or more accurately, our energy. Our most valuable resource. What makes us who we are and drives us. This precious resource we must sell in order to maintain our very existence. As long as fuel and water and housing and food and rubbish removal services continue in the way they have been during our lifetime. This dependency, this lack of control is exactly what drives bullies and trolls. I was touched by an article in The Skinny, written by Kate Pasola, entitled Don’t Feed the Trolls, Challenge Them. She describes her experience writing and performing publicly, and in so doing, being the target of trolls who were angry and looking for an outlet. This touched me because if you’re anything but a wasp and you write or speak, or do anything openly that challenges or questions conventional behaviour, the angry trolls come after you. It’s happened to me, it’s happened to people I know, it will continue to happen to others and it’s not unthinkable that it will happen to my daughter. To say this behaviour is bullying is only just scratching the surface. It stems from roots deeply snarled around feelings of helplessness, inadequacy, and the intense frustration of powerlessness. It takes aim at anyone in similar circumstances that has the gumption and the courage to stand up and call a spade a spade. At people who take back (even) a small measure of control by doing something entirely for themselves because it is the right - and the healthy- thing to do, rather than simply cowing to the currents that control the masses in the hope that they won’t be a target. Bullying behaviou
r is controlled by fear and frustration - yet bullies are so out of control of themselves that they are oblivious to even this truth. So what to do about this wide-spread, millennia-old problem? I think the answer is two-fold. First, stand together with the people who are the targets. No matter how seasoned you are, it doesn’t feel nice to have abuse hurled at your head - so support your peeps who are at the receiving end. It will be beyond gratifying for them to know that they aren’t facing this alone. Second, and this is a biggie, give the bullies the respect they deserve for being human. They may be making poor choices, but - as long as they aren’t using physical violence - THEY are the ones who have to live with their own actions. The verbal abuse that they hurl doesn’t actually say anything about their target, it says something about them. Something to the tune of ‘I am hurting and lost and don’t know how to handle this.’ It’s not easy to have compassion for a troll, but the real heroes are those who understand what these people mean and know what they need. Be a real hero.
