Bullying and Ganging Up Response

"The reason people bully others is that bullies feel it is the only way for them to fit in.  What many people don’t realize is that you can get even more respect making friends then you can bullying." 

   -Stolen from Sam Everett's Blog

I have to say, I completely agree with this. I do believe that the reason why people bully others is so that they themselves can feel a sense of power and strength. Although the bully may not realize this themselves, they subconsiously are doing this and consiously thinking that the victim they are picking on deserves the treatment. On the inside, this bully feels like they themselves have no way of fitting in and alienating other people for the fun of it automatically puts the other person under them. The fact that they themselves are not able to feel like they fit in drives them to hurt others and attempt to make friends by ganging up on a person. Like Sam said, these people simply want to be accepted and by bullying someone they expect to be liked and to gain a respect from everyone around them. They do not realize that what they are doing makes everyone think that the bully is just mean and the bully would just feel the same form of isolation as before, but now, everyone is afraid of even interacting with them. There are many situations that I have seen a bully gang up with other bullies in order to pick on one person. This kind of ganging up is supposed to benefit all the bullies. In some way, they feel like they are all outcasts and are constantly being looked down on for who they are. They attempt to bring others down to a level in which they felt they were at, even if the victim was not one who made them feel like the way they did in the first place. It is uncommon to find a bully who bullies people simply because he or she likes to do it.
The ASTI constitution was made for the purposes that bullying will not happen. Everyone should be conscious of the way they treat others and think about what they do before doing it. Otherwise, we will all become enemies of each other and the ASTI community will no longer be tight knit, but would run with a vibe that screams "hate".