The Difference Between Heaven and Hell A Story
A young armed arrogant warrior came to see the old wise man.
"Oh wise man, tell me the secret of life. What is the difference between Heaven and Hell?"
The wise man thought for a moment and said, ''You are a stupid young fool. How can an idiot like you even begin to understand this? You are far too ignorant."
On hearing these words, the young warrior became enraged. "I could kill you for what you said." He started to draw his sword to kill the wise man when the wise man said,
"That is Hell!"
On hearing these words, the warrior put back his sword.
"That," spoke the wise man, "is Heaven!"
Have you ever read about people like Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler, Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, or other world political and military leaders? These people were horrible bullies! They violently gained power over others because they wanted people to believe in and live the way of life they thought best. They tortured and killed millions of people for their ideals.
These people are extreme cases, but there were millions of others who contributed to their terrible aggressions. All the 102
officers, soldiers and politicians who supported and served these leaders were also bullies. Our world has been run by bullies for thousands of years.
We have enjoyed very little peace on earth or time when humans have been able to cooperate nonviolently.
The issue of
peace has been of great concern to all sensitive human beings since the beginning of mankind.
Propaganda: Verbal Bullying
The kind of bullying that happens on the school playground is essentially the same bullying that causes international wars - both use physical force or hostile aggression to "win." Behind this physical aggression is a mental aggression - it is verbal bullying, and it's called propaganda.
People use propaganda to win people over to their way of thinking, usually by telling lies or exaggerating.
Propaganda
has been used for centuries to "brainwash" or condition people into believing all sorts of things.
When you watch television, the propaganda you see most often is in commercials - advertising meant to bully you into buying products. By using light, pictures, sounds, music, and images, advertisers persuade you to buy the products you see on the screen. Did you know that the average young person watches between 30,000 to 40,000 commercials a year? That's a lot of propaganda!
Propaganda is also used to create wars. Countries use the media (TV, radio, newspapers, political cartoons, videos, film, magazines and even comics) to bully you into believing that their way is "the right way." Every nation uses propaganda to 103
get you to believe that "the other side" is bad, evil - "the enemy." For decades, until the historic improvement in relations between the two countries, Americans had been taught to see Russians as brutal and warlike. Russians had been taught to see Americans as money-grubbing, cunning and untrustworthy. How do you suppose that image was created?
Why do ountries do this? To get you to fight? To defend your nation? To defend your way of life? Like a bully on a playground, propaganda pushes you to act.
Nationalists (people devoted only to the interest of their nation) can brainwash you into believing that in order to live you must take sides, align yourself with their particular belief system. This becomes the basis of destructive competition and creates war, great pain and sorrow in the world. If we divide ourselves from other people, then we are creating the conditions for conflict and war. Therefore, we must understand why and how we become divided, why there are separate groups, political parties, religions, nations. This doesn't mean that we all have to look alike or speak the same language. Differences can be beautiful, and give the world variety. But belief systems and propaganda produce differences that lead to division, conflict and destruction. People who use propaganda are bullies.
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Following are the two final sections of this book. One is called "Activities" and includes exercises that can help you develop nonviolent alternatives and improve your understanding of the bully/victim relationship. The last section, "Questions to Help You Stop and Think," provides a list of questions for you to ponder. You may want to look them over alone, or discuss them with others at school or at home.
However you use these activities and questions, I hope you will continue your search for ways to create a world in which cooperation is the number one priority.
Bullying, as you may now see, has world-wide implications. If we can understand how and why we bully each other at home or at school, we can begin to understand how and why nations also bully, leading to conflict and war.
For, as I see it, it is one and the same. What do you see?
Karate at Work
A Story
Jeff was in his woodshop class at school, working on his project. In came Chris, the school bully.
"Hey, hot shot, hear you've been taking Karate. What for?
Are ya' Bruce Lee or something? Come on, Kung Fu fool, show me your stuff. I want to see your Karate!"
Jeff kept on quietly and carefully sanding his project. He looked up slowly, then straight into the eyes of Chris, and said with a friendly and confident smile, as he kept on sanding,
"I'm doing it now."
