Chapter 4: The Distorted Power Lens What are your powers? Do you know how powerful you are? Do you know that there is always something you can do to take back your power even if you don’t know what to do or if you haven’t been taught the skills throughout your life? Both bullies and bullying victims have unhealthy power management skills. Depending on where you seat on the jigsaw of power, you can get closer to the first or to the second label and you can swap the roles. I remember finding myself on both sides of the relationship. Many people who encounter their own bully for the first time are overwhelmed by a deep sense of shame and regret. If you ask many people who know me, they will probably say that I am a very kind and warm person. …show more content…
Powerlessness is a synonym of feeling worthless, inadequate and not good enough. Many of the wounds we inflict on each other through bullying behavior are due to those wounds. If you have the time or the patience to read only a part of this book, make it about the wounds explained in the next chapter. And if there is only one message that you pick up from this book, then please make it this …show more content…
It would be amazing to put it in each classroom. You can then close this book and stop reading the rest of the chapters. To sum up, many bullying behaviors are a result of the way people think. The link between bullying and prejudice is relevant not only in the context of childism. Bullies use all types of prejudices to violate the power balance. If you observe what is happening in the world today, you will notice a rise in the authoritarian personality - the one that wants to control, the one that is frightened and the one that is full of prejudice. A prejudice is simply a distorted, one-dimensional thinking. Individuals who lack the sense or the abilities to think in complex concepts are more prone to prejudices. It is convenient for them to put one “label” to a person or to a group of people. When we label people in one-dimensional ways, we are just strengthening the division and the fear and we are helping our bullies find their way to the surface. Labels are great for making sense out of the world we live in, but they are also potent fear