Bullying = arrested development + violence (Research Focus)

The project began last September as research to help activist efforts for anti-bullying programs, driven by my deep sadness at several high-profile bullycides in 2010. Upon finding the very thorough anti-bullying laws already on the books in many states, I decided to launch an independent investigation into those programs, conducting interviews with local educators, lawmakers, and school board members here in Gainesville. At the time, I was also reading Bauerlein’s “The Dumbest Generation” and experiencing frustration with the frivolity and stupidity of many people my age, having recently graduated college with no sorrow at leaving many of my classmates behind. I also had recently experienced two severe heapings of bullying and abuse in my own life, and watched helplessly as a loved one dealt with repeated harassment at the workplace. I began to see connections between school bullying and workplace harassment, this kind of aggressive behavior and emotional underdevelopment, and this arrested development and America’s larger social and educational problems. A lot of connections to deal with in a research project. Thankfully anthropology is here to help, using theories of cultural logic and game play. The beginnings of my developing thesis follow:

Several psychocultural factors contribute to the prevalence of bullying in schools, and indeed, in society, but all relate to two major social phenomena: the normatization of violence and aggression, and, as mentioned above, arrested psychological and physical development. These phenomena are not restricted to the United States, but the Westernized, technological world, as an economic, information, cultural, and scientific monopolizer with the cultural logic of industry behind it, creates a particular developmental pattern and necessitates a justification ideology that allows the often violent use of power to maintain its privileges. The U.S., as a two-in-one individualistic and imperialistic national psyche, is a world leader that requires two things: for its citizens to buy into nationalistic ideology while desiring to serve a useful function in society, and for its youth to develop at a standardized clockwork buffered by laws, and to serve as cultural innovators first, social contributors second.

As a species, humans experience a period of arrested development, in which they are born with a relatively large brain and not much else. They depend entirely on their caretakers for food, shelter, and learning; they have to learn to communicate their needs and wants, and they will not be ready for even basic household tasks for at least three years. But psychologically, humans mature at vastly different rates across cultures, if only because social markers of maturity are set differently in each society, and often have no “psychological” component.

Something is missing, in education, parenting, and cultural norms and expectations that children provided with numerous goalposts of maturation—kindergarten, middle school, first school dance, the 13^th birthday, high school, sweet 16, prom, losing virginity, graduation, 18^th birthday, freshman year, 21^st birthday, graduation—are so rarely in line with these markers. Why do so many kindergarteners have trouble speaking, yet are greeted with simplistic alphabet drills and macaroni art? Why do middle schoolers reach sexual maturity but know nothing about their bodies, leading to STDs and teen pregnancy? Why do high school graduates head for college with a minimal knowledge of history, science, foreign languages, and the civic system, yet are legally able to vote? Why do youths reach legal drinking age with no sense of responsibility for their life or families, after four years partying and “getting to know themselves” at college? It’s a chicken-or-the-egg situation when we start to wonder whether school breaks kids, or kids break schools—and each other.

Young Americans are kept in a dual role of consumer and cultural innovator, a lifestyle ever supplemented by technology and social networking. A cultural focus on individualism and increased leisure activities buffer America’s ever-growing disconnect from the rest of the world and lead to self-obsessed youths who think it’s okay to bully while carving out their place in the world. And parents normatize the aggressive tendencies bred of be-your-own-boss, survival-of-the-fittest ideals while endlessly grooming their children to be better versions of themselves. The tug-of-war between discordant aspects of American culture leads to a peculiar version of arrested development that leads an ever-consuming army of children to grow up into…children.