Asylum

Bullies have always relied on the courtesy, the squeamishness and the self-interest of witnesses. Bullies exploit the commitment of the general society to the basic social contracts of the Golden Rule, and all the other philosophical and religious strictures and beliefs that are the foundation of civilization.

Bullies surround themselves with gangs of the equally or even more insane, with thugs and sycophants, all whose only ‘virtue’ is to believe everything the Bully tells them to believe. This is the bully’s secure perimeter. This is the chorus that cheers and tosses flowers at every word of the Bully. This is the mob that supports and commits every atrocious act.

And while the Bully thunders erratically across the world like a wild storm, there will always be those who enable, who exploit, who think they will just ‘ride the whirlwind’ to their own advantage. Thinking to make the Bully a tool of their own, they simply become extensions of the machine.

It isn’t just now, it isn’t just here: malignant bullies have always been part of politics and the social order, every one glorying in its victories that make it look successful for a little while. Every one has fallen, sooner or later, to its victims.

The thing is, there are always more of the victims than the cronies, and sooner or later, there will be enough outrage to break the machine. Whether it looks like Bastille Day or Election Day, the power ultimately returns to the ‘little people’ disdained and discounted by the Bully. Punishment will come whether by rule of law that holds Bully and cronies and thug army accountable, or the mob singing songs of victory while it tears them into little bloody gobbets.

The tragedy is that even when sanity is restored, and the inmates of the asylum are once again safely put away, even though many of the Bully’s works can be undone, the lives lost, the families, lands torn asunder are irreparable and can never be put right. That is the legacy of every Bully’s malignancy.