NationStates Jolt Archive

I would like to both acknowledge the existence of bullies in politics, and life in general. I want to address their importance in terms of what gets done after the speeches have been made, after the resolutions have been passed, and after the laws and doctrines have been established. When I talk about what gets done and what doesn't get done, I am talking about the impact on day to day realities of individual citizen's lives by how political realities are implemented through action, how those actions are justified through 'spin', and the role of bullies in creating the world as we now know it.

First, in my opinion if I were not one of those bullies I would not be participating here and neither would you. To participate in the political and influence peddaling arena at all, to run a nation/state, you must first be somewhat of a bully and want to impose your will on others or even virtual others. If that were not the case, you and I would simply resign ourselves and succumb to the will of other players who we believed in some way or other to be our superiors.

Second, I would like to recognize that there are many forms of bullying. One can physically bully the weak. One can be an intellectual bully. One can use economics to bully or influence, position, etc, etc. It is possible to use technology, belief systems, markets and any of an almost infinite variety of combinations of the above elements to bully and I know there are many other ways of being a bully that I have not even thought of or mentioned here.

So to be a successful leader, to influence, to effect change in the world what does one ultimately do but bully others, in one way or another, into submission? I will not go into the details or run endless scenarios of how this works but anyone with much experience in dealing with day to day politics or who is at all observant, has a reasonable amount of life experience, and is not delusional in their thinking, will likely agree that this distasteful message is also a truthful one.

I say this because it relates to the UN and the UN is supposed to be a major component of what should ultimately impact our virtual citizens on day to day realities of their lives throughout our virtual world.

What I am saying is this: If that is to happen then, I believe that the UN must have teeth and muscle, the UN must be a bully and it must be the biggest and meanest bully around or it will be ineffective. This said, one must ask themselves; it that a good idea? If the members of the UN are in fact the biggest and most successful bullies in the world, is it a good idea to have those bullies form a world government that has teeth and muscle? The best answer I can think of to that question is that it is likely not a good idea. Why would I say that? Here is the reason: at first it might be a good idea, but at some point in time, a bully would come along who would exploit a well intentioned global system to dominate the world to his/her own selfish ends without regard for the general welfare of all the virtual world’s citizens and who would pervert the good intentions initially layed out by well intentioned bullies such as ourselves. This person would be a Bullie's Bully. Because of this, I believe that we are better off in the long run, having small nation/states that bicker and bully each other in petty ways, just as we do now and that the UN continue to serve primarily the role it serves now, a place to meet and air hopefully, the most lofty and noble of proposals and to deny those proposals that are less worthy. Hopefully, this ongoing communication among all the virtual bullies of the world will make us all a bit more humane and lead to a somewhat better virtual world for all our virtual citizens.
Elmar – Representative/Leader of Nomadic Peoples of All the Known World

Great speech, now would you give us the Reader's Digest Condensed version for those of us who fell asleep halfway through the first paragraph.

Timothy Schmidt
Bob Flibble's PA

Great speech, now would you give us the Reader's Digest Condensed version for those of us who fell asleep halfway through the first paragraph.

Timothy Schmidt
Bob Flibble's PA

No.

Great speech, now would you give us the Reader's Digest Condensed version for those of us who fell asleep halfway through the first paragraph.

Timothy Schmidt
Bob Flibble's PA

The long and the short of it might be something like this:
Bullying is deeply engrained in political institutions and other institutions. In democratic countries, bullying is more subtle than in dictatorships. It isn't about a class war or war between competing economic systems or civilizations, but a war between types of personality. This cuts across all other conflicts. A "war on bullying" or "war on abuse" would be much more worthwhile than one of the other "war on __________"(you fill in the blank) but of course politicians won't do it as they are bullies themselves. This I believe is the case in all countries around the world, not to mention corporations, religious organizations, etc., etc. Representatives in the virtural UN represent the biggest bullies from such countries. I am sure the virtual UN is well intentioned but in the end all we will have created is a global system that will likely be dominated by a Bully among Bullies and thus maybe we are better off not empowering such a system.

Does this have a point? Are you going to waste our time with a pointless resolution on bullying?

I certainly hope not because my inner bully would feel the need to rip apart any resolution on bullying. Usually things I'm against begin with the words "The United Nations Resolves:" or "The United Nations;".

Vladimir Alexandrovich,
Janitor for the Zyrwickian UN Delegation.

Does this have a point? Are you going to waste our time with a pointless resolution on bullying?

I certainly hope not because my inner bully would feel the need to rip apart any resolution on bullying. Usually things I'm against begin with the words "The United Nations Resolves:" or "The United Nations;".

Vladimir Alexandrovich,
Janitor for the Zyrwickian UN Delegation.

Ah, you make my point for me. Thank you. So obviously, my point is not pointless.

I believe what my assistant was getting at was, is there a point to your speech, or are you bloviating for no reason?

Bob Flibble
UN Representative

I believe what my assistant was getting at was, is there a point to your speech, or are you bloviating for no reason?

Bob Flibble
UN Representative

Hello, my name is Elmar and I am a Bully.
I am well known as the biggest bully among my peoples and that is why they have decided to send me here to speak to all of you.

Yes there is a point to my speech. My peoples are an ancient and Peaceful Nomadic Peoples. Like most Nomadic peoples we fear being pushed from our lands and our hunting grounds by the dominant and aggressive cultures that appear to surround us.

As it stands, borders and flags were pressed upon us. In the official description of our country you refer to our traditional tribal ways as being a 'Corrupt Dictatorship'. That is not true. Our traditional hunting grounds have been stolen from us and are placed behind the imaginary lines you refer to as borders and our whole way of life is threatened. We are represented now by a piece of cloth with an arbitrary design on it that is called a flag. The UN requires and recognizes that flag but my people do not.

My people have met in our traditional Kivas and Sweat Lodges throughout the lands that have yet to be taken from us and the overwhelming word from these many councils has been a cry asking me to represent them and speak up for them. My peoples overwhelmingly believe that a dominant culture of Bully People is at the heart of our problems and at the heart of the problems of all Peaceful Nomadic Peoples throughout the world. My people have asked me to address that issue and speak of it in your UN. My people believe that being a bully is just like being an alcoholic or being an abusive spouse in a relationship. My people believe that the first step in recovery from such problems is that the alcoholic or abusive spouse first recognize their disease and then acknowledge the disease to themselves and then acknowledge it to the community at large on a regular basis. I have been sent here by my peoples to confront the members of the UN, most of whom appear to my peoples as being representatives of whole cultures that suffer from this disease, to help them recognize their affliction and to make a resolution of some sort that Bully Representatives start each communication in the UN something like this:
'Hello my name is _______ and I am a Bully and I represent a dominate Bully culture'.

That would be a start. Once this problem is acknowledged and recognized by the majority in the UN, maybe then we could look toward a global recovery.

Elmar Representative of the Nomadic Peoples of All the known world

If you intend to actually write a UN Proposal, do so. Otherwise, this thread serves little purpose.

If you intend to actually write a UN Proposal, do so. Otherwise, this thread serves little purpose.

Other than complying with the will of the people I represent and giving them a voice through this thread posted in the Forum called 'The United Nations'; I see no point in creating any given UN Proposal as such proposal would serve little purpose when it comes to changing the behaviors mentioned in this thread.

The threads purpose has already been served and that was to give voice to my peoples concerns. I believe that I have faithfully served as a speaker and representative for my people and that their concerns have been heard in this Forum whether acknowleded or not. Thank you.

Elmar Representative of the Nomadic Peoples of All the known world