I'm going to assume that everyone here has heard of Metalized Hobsbawm. Yes, that historian who has the book about the Age of Extremes – The Brief 20th Century.
Hence, as you know, he talks about the fact that the last century has not seen a single year of peace between peoples. This means that we have had wars for at least the last hundred years.
These days, talking to a historian friend, she said that war conflicts have been occurring since the world began. So saying that we have only just reached the end of time is nonsense.
She concluded her reasoning by saying that today we are much better. At least we have cable TV. I couldn't help but agree.
Why am I saying this? Just to introduce today's topic. The extremes. I've been thinking about this a lot. The other day the drag queen Cindy posted here the video with an interview with Casey Heynes, the "Zangief Kid", the chubby kid from the United States who beat his bully.
The video shows how the boy suffered from constant persecution from other students and how these attacks happened quite frequently.
One thing that intrigued me was that in the middle of the report they explained that the school, which is "against violence", suspended the two students. Both the chubby guy was a victim of bullying who "freed himself from the provocations" and the skinny guy who came out of the fight all crooked.
How is it possible that the boy suffered for so long in silence without the school – which is "against violence", I repeat – not doing anything. It took an impactful image, a strong fight and a viral video on You Tube for the school to take action. And by all accounts, the measure was just a one-off, so to speak.
Only hypocrisy and our habit of sweeping discomfort under the rug to explain. The Age of Extremes is here and now – hello Bolsonaro, that hug. Educational measures, frank conversations with children and a review of attitudes need to take shape so that bullying actually stops being a problem. After all, this has been around for a long time, even before there was a name like that, and it has even become a joke.
Because bullying is a fashionable term and this kind of thing is easily discredited. But it is also a serious problem that needs to be faced and combated so that images like that of Casey Heynes and tragedies like the Realengo shootings do not happen again. At least in that world that we want.
