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| The faces of the bullies |
There are reasons for why I believe this. But we’ll get to those in a minute. I’m writing this out today because of the incident that took place at the Scarsdale International school in Lahore. Three girls, ganged up on one, beating her, harassing her, scarring her, whilst her peers stood around, laughing, joking and making videos. In fact, one of the bullies who got on top of her was making a video herself. Clearly, they wanted this to get out. Idiots.
So when news broke that those three girls have been nominated in an FIR, and then have subsequently gotten pre-arrest bails, the liberal wing of Twitter went into meltdown mode. ‘You don’t bully bullies!’ they said, as if the teens in the video would learn their lesson because someone on Twitter was advocating compassion on their behalf. There was even a tweet that said ‘you should condemn this behavior, but police should not be involved.’ I’m sorry, but what?
Here’s the thing: If justice wasn’t such a scam in Pakistan, nobody would give that video a second glance. And I don’t mean the Star Plus like indulgences of our high lords; I mean the justice that we practice in everyday life. The one that the great pied piper of Bani Gala keeps referencing. But the brutality, the bullying, the injustice, the lack of consequences all prick the conscience. That’s where the anger and need for retaliation comes from.
Learned liberals on Twitter are horrified. “Minors being violent in schools need to be suspended and expelled, not thrown into jails!” But let’s map out this logic. Suspending the bullies for a few days, heck even expelling them isn’t some kind of “punishment,” because you’ve forgone the greater social nuance at play here. They’ll go back, or go to some other elitist school. That’s not a consequence. It’s also not punishment because their parents clearly don’t give a shit. If they had, their kids would’ve worried about the consequences of their actions, instead of making videos about them and giggling like low functioning sociopaths. These elitist pricks have grown up in environments where casual bullying is a feature of daily life, not a disappointment. So clearly, it’s not the school or the parents that are going to do anything to fix the bullies.
This is why there is such a large public reaction. It’s all of our frustrations being channeled into one incident. It’s got all the hallmarks; the bullies are being defended because oh no, they’re teens! On top of their teen-ness, they’re also elite. So the expectation is that they will of course get away with it. But what about the bullied? Imagine the humiliation and suffering of having your face plastered all over the internet as you’re being beaten, and then imagine no one coming to your rescue. Meanwhile everybody’s out there using imported western ideology to counsel the bullies, or let the school deal with them. Fuck that.
In this particular case, it appears (although I can’t be sure) that the bullies have ended up bullying a fellow elite child. The entire school has been sealed, and an FIR was filed against the bullies. And that is excellent. The bullies need to suffer the consequences of their actions. Make it so real for them, they shiver when they think of even looking at someone with ill intent. Love and compassion works in societies where justice is easy, immediate and plenty. It doesn’t work in societies like ours where we have to fight and condemn for scraps of it. But who am I kidding; even in this instance, the bullies won. They got their pre-arrest bails and are enjoying their days sipping their cokes whilst mummy and daddy fight tooth and nail to keep them from suffering what they actually deserve.
