By Dr. Lollipop
In a society where soap prevents the natural proliferation of bacteria and premature babies aren’t left to their own devices, one might wonder if there is anything “natural” left in the Homo sapiens population. We humans have come so far in the battle against the natural forces of illness, injury, genetic deformities, sexual dimorphism, and poverty that this anti-science rhetoric has become the fulcrum and foundation of the moral standards set in countries such as the United States. Adults endure long years of habituation from authoritative figures who have already been desensitized to this unnatural behavior, such as parents, school teachers, and government officials. So where can we turn to in our search for our true nature? Why, among the beings who had the least amount of conditioning of course: children.
Although commonly thought of as the collective innocence among all animals, excluding bugs, the animal child is no way short of being the most savage among us, especially juvenile Homo sapiens. Bursting from the womb with the unbridled fury of an uncurbed wild animal, the human baby enters the world as, not a blank slate, but a natural slate, adamantly inclined to the “survival of the fittest” mentality in the form of social natural selection, also known in layman’s terms as bullying. The negative connotations about the word stemming from the emphasis on the tolerance and acceptance of everyone that many modern authorities push have for too long hid its benefits. This is not to say that there are no negative aspects to allowing this phenomena to naturally occur among our youth. The adverse effects of bullying are well known, and, because of this, are too often “overrated.” Indeed, hair loss, chronic acid reflux, insomnia, and PTSD are inevitable, but these are all small prices to pay for the attainment of personal strength and conformity. While each child is a universe, and exists in its own right, we are ultimately doing a disservice to children if we do not let bullying continue in schools.
We are social creatures, intrinsically bound together by our similarities. Bullying is an altruistic act that only exists to protect the delicate cultural structure that keeps a society united and prosperous by providing corrections to those who have unknowingly drifted astray. Adversity towards the outliers bestows upon them a type of strength that would not have been attained if their oddities were tolerated, much less accepted; a type of strength needed to thrive. For example: which is a more inspirational story? The story of a boy with two loving parents, an involved school district, and a close circle of friends becomes a world-traveling doctor to provide care for poverty-stricken children? Or the tale of a boy who overcomes a terrible case of acne and distasteful political views after years of social correction with the power of basic hygiene and personal metamorphosis? Most would choose the latter, and go on to learn that he became a powerful corporate CEO to exact justice upon his enemies while making millions for himself and his country, while the former boy got a bad case of Ebola and died alone in his thirties.
As a final comparison, let us look to one of our animal brethren, the classic tale of a cuckoo bird’s upbringing. The mother cuckoo bird cunningly lays her egg in the nest of another unsuspecting mother bird of a different, arguably less intelligent, species. The new mother, taking no notice of the obvious differences between her biological eggs and the non-consensually adopted one, cares for all of them. Which of course, seems like a sweet story at first, doesn’t it? A mother bird adopts a poor, homeless chick whose deadbeat mom abandoned them on her doorstep. One might imagine that all of the birds accept each other’s differences, love them for it, and share all of their mother’s food and attention equally. Then the bird chicks grow up, make their own families, and have yearly reunions until the end of time. This is the scenario that the mainstream media wants you to believe. But that’s not how nature works. In the true ending, the cuckoo bird hatches and immediately takes advantage of their nest mates’ weaknesses, such as their smaller size, and either deprives them of food, suffocates them, or pushes them out of their nest. A gruesome ending—for the ones that perished! Did the cuckoo bird care for the feelings of its nestmates? To an extent, perhaps, insofar as it was able to gain their trust and join their social circle. However, conflict inevitably rises; be the corporate cuckoo bird, and soar.