Who is the bigger bully? That is the question. Life is not cut across simple lines that separate good and evil or bully and victim. It is not that good or evil doesn't exist nor is it true that a bully or a victim does not exist in pure form. However, human nature corrupted as it is can at one moment make the victim into the bully.
Thus, in self reflecting upon the world news and national and international stories I often wonder why I pick one side over the other. It's not always clear cut. For example, the recent stories about the protests in Turkey. You have the ruling prime minister of Turkey, Erdogan who at once is a very conservative Muslim and free market capitalist. As Doug Saunders states in his opinion article, "A New Middle East Can be Seen Through the Tear Gas of Istanbul," that Erdogan and his supporters are "Islamic Calvinists" in the sense of being deeply conservative, but very capitalist as well. The old opposition being both nationalist, ethnocentric and supporters of the military. The new opposition is a mishmash of smaller groups from anarchists, but also includes a new middle class that is protesting against new laws that are masked sharia and authoritarian actions against the freedom of the press. So just by my writing you can see I lean more in support of the protest movement which looks a bit more like the "U.S. Occupy Movement" and stand against a capitalist like Erdogan who has helped Turkey's economy open up and grow. Why is this so?
On a basic level, the protesters in Turkey are not like the Occupy movement in the sense that they are fighting for basic rights of life and liberty. For freedom of speech and press. Additionally, Edrogan's Islamic conservatism is parallel, but not the same as Christian or Republican conservatism as it's basis is Sharia Law.
However, deeper than this for myself is the core of my Libertarian and Natural Law ideology where I see bullies. So lets define a bully at least what I define as a bully. Bully generally defined is the use of force or coercion to physically hurt or intimidate one person or a group by one person, small group or mob through harassment, threat, assault, or coercion. I will add that it's goal is to impose power to gain influence, to obtain something, to control others, and/or to gain a strategic advantage that hinders a persons or a groups God given basic rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Without my additional definition you could almost make any group a bully. You could make the 1960 Civil Rights Movement bullies or the U.S. during the Revolutionary War. Those sought to gain the freedom natural to them of religious and human rights and not to gain or create more rights. To decrees the abuse of government on peoples lives. To stop one bully from controlling the life of another or basically taking that life away at whim.
This doesn't mean that today's victim cannot become tomorrows bully. The U.S. of today is not innocent and has trampled on peoples rights since the Revolutionary War and the Civil Rights Movement has indirectly created reverse discrimination. This also does not mean that it will always be clear cut who is the bully and who is the victim in any one situation. Communists fighting against fascists means the winner is a lose, lose situation for those who fall under the control of the winner. Also a state of nature or anarchy is not the answer toward authoritarianism or bullies. Humans, while made in the image of God and exhibits those attributes, is also inherently a bully. As the Stanford Prison Experiment, Abu Ghraib, and the Rwandan Genocide has shown that men and women can be corrupted by power, control and violence. Human's sin and act like bullies.
Thus, watching the movie Captain America a few years ago, the young Steve Rogers played by Chris Evans said something that hit home with me, "I don't like bullies. I don't care where they're from." This simple quote from a film helped me understand and explain my world view better than just saying I'm a libertarian, I'm an American, I'm a Republican, or even saying I'm a Christian as all of those mean so many different things to so many different people. Not that those things don't define me and my views, but just adding those adjectives to myself does not explain or define why I tend to support one group over another or have mixed feelings about some stories or situations.
So then the next question becomes, "Is God a cosmic bully and if so why am I a Christian?" That is a question best looked at by another blog post on another day.
