Politicians are a weird and often unfathomable breed. The weirdness isn’t just limited to American politicians, either. Take John Key, the Prime Minister of New Zealand.
Key is under fire because he repeatedly tugged on the ponytail of a waitress at a cafe he frequents in Auckland — even after she told Key’s security people, and later Key himself, that she didn’t like it. When she finally went public with Key’s conduct, and he started to be criticized for it, he apologized, said his ponytail pulls were meant to be “light-hearted” and not intended to make the waitress uncomfortable, explained that the cafe was a place where had a “warm and friendly” relationship with the staff that involved “fun and games” and “practical jokes,” and gave the waitress two bottles of wine.
Anybody who’s ever been bullied recognizes this scenario. The bully invades your personal space and does something physical that they think is funny, their sycophants dutifully laugh at the antics of their leader, and the bully keeps rubbing your head or punching your arm every time they see you even though you ask them to stop. If they get caught in the act by a teacher, they insist it’s all simply joking between friends — one of whom just happens to be bigger and more powerful than the other, who always seems to be the butt of the “jokes.”
Key’s conduct doesn’t just reflect a bullying attitude, though — it also reveals the power relationships to which politicians the world over become accustomed. Most of us would never dream of physically touching a waiter or waitress, much less doing something as painful, intrusive, and asinine as pulling a ponytail and continuing to do so even after being asked to quit it. Key did it because, surrounded by security people and wearing the mantle of national leadership, he could. It’s the same attitude of power and entitlement that makes American politicians unconcerned by the fact that their motorcades and security cordons inconvenience normal folks and makes them mad when an average person has the temerity to question what they’re doing, their motives, or where they are getting campaign contributions from.
In Key’s case the hair-yanking probably gave him a little thrill and direct sense of power, besides. Anyone care to guess how many of the “practical jokes” at the cafe were pulled by Key on the unfortunate members of the staff and how many were directed at him?
Martin — an offensive lineman who is 6′ 5″ and weighs more than 300 pounds — left the Dolphins abruptly after enduring the hazing and harassing behavior of his own teammates. New stories about the incident indicate that 
Some of the prevailing wisdom is that the internet, and social media, have contributed to the relentless bullying. The notion is that what used to be one-on-one bullying can quickly become a much wider form of inflicting humiliation. Rather than just mortifying someone on the school bus or in the gym class locker, the thinking goes, social media allows the bullies to broadcast and heighten their taunts and attempts to shame and ridicule to the point where the object of the bullying feels that death is their only escape. The youthful targets doesn’t quite realize that their teenage years will pass, that the school year embarrassments will fade into distant memories, and that the jerk who is torturing them doesn’t represent what lies ahead.
According to statistics quoted at the summit, in 2007 one out of three middle school and high school students reported being bullied at some point. Does anyone really think that percentage is greater than it was in, say, 1970? Speaking as an overweight, pimply, glasses-wearing junior high school student of that era, I can assure you from bitter personal experience that bullying was alive and well in the America of decades gone by. Watch A Christmas Story or Back To The Future if you don’t believe me.
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