| Worry in a family school or firm spreads like die in a pail of water. |
| A dog may savage a few sheep but the rest of the flock, aware of
their enemy, will scatter in every direction. But when we are bullied and
intimidated others look on unaware of an enemy running amock.
We can see an obvious bully but what of a child whose fearful parents cannot say no, and mean it; he screams the house down to get his own way, which makes him the bully and his parents his victims. Yet we are born with with a fight-flight faculty but imagine that in our sophisticated culture we have no need of it; so we grow up unable to tell a friend from an enemy. It takes courage to challenge a dragon, even a paper one; it seems wise to let sleeping dogs lie, anything but risk the slender advantages we might achieve if we fight. |