the monkey manifesto: adventure

So I was reading Prevention the other day... yeah, I was reading that, it's a long story. So I'm reading this article and I was hit with the most profound piece of AARP journalism I've ever come across.

It was truly groundbreaking.

School bullies aren't the sad misfits, loners, and revenge-seeking geeks we thought they were, report UCLA psychologists who recently interviewed 2000 sixth graders and their teachers at Los Angeles-area middle schools. Most often, they're actually the popular self-confident "cool" kids.

Holy fucking spunk-monkeys! You don't say! This brilliant scoop is surely Pulitzer caliber. Whoa, whoa, whoa... let me slow down a bit just in case you can't keep up. What they are saying is that the bullies aren't the kids that are bullied... WOW! Phenomenal reporting.

But wait, there's more.

It's a finding that may resonate with your own memories of playground social dynamics.

Well golly, so what they've found out is that not only are the bullies not the kids who have been bullied, but that nothing has changed from when the target demographic who reads Prevention went to grade school.

I just don't understand when our parent generation got all confused about bullies and bullying. I mean, it's spelt out plain as day in A Christmas Story. They see these loner Columbine and Jonesboro kids shoot up their schools and obviously the logical leap is that these kids are the bullies wreaking havoc on a bullied school.

Why does it confuse our parent generation so much to see kids that have been bullied beyond the breaking point snap and retaliate?

What's so mind-boggling about standing up for yourself?