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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: haqihana who wrote (90616)	12/14/2004 2:50:22 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 793717

Perhaps, you should consider using a word other than bully in such discussions. "Bully": one who is habitually cruel, especially to smaller, or weaker, people. I am using that word with intent. I mean for it to convey the notion of the powerful intimidating the underdog. Bullying does not necessarily involve blows. Bullying can involve simply a display of dominance to put others in their place. I cannot understand how some one saying "Merry Christmas" can be considered bullying. It wouldn't be in most circumstances. I spoke earlier of the act and its companion attitude. Without the 'tude, the expression is not bullying. Here's an example. "Where are you going?" is a common and harmless expression. But when you're a kid trying to enter the library and a bunch of guys are lining the steps smoking and one of them says it, it's likely bullying. Same words, different intent. When people who think that their majority status, the Constitution, and/or a mandate from God entitle them to hegemony and they assert that dominance by saying "Merry Christmas," then it's bullying. Say, for example, the kid entering the library is an atheist and the kids lining the steps chant "Merry Christmas." I have argued here in the last couple of days that insisting on messages of "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Holidays" to people not known to celebrate Christmas is an assertion of dominance meant, directly or indirectly, to put the "other" in its place. And I have also argued that insisting that the entire month of December is the Christmas season so no strictly secular event can can occur during that month is also an assertion of dominance meant to put the "other" in their place. If you have a better word to express those assertions of dominance than "bullying," I'll entertain it. I've also been prepared to entertain different ideas of just how much dominance it's appropriate for the dominant party to show without setting itself up as piggish, self-absorbed, or bullying. I'd be particularly interesting in learning how those assertions of dominance fit in with the Christian notion of graciousness and charity towards the weak. Unfortunately, I've been kept busy explaining that I'm not advocating ghettoizing Christianity or vandalizing creches. <g>