A load full of bull

By Tim Middleton | Jan. 5, 2025

Rep picture : ‘The Three Bulls’ is not a fairy tale or a nursery rhyme; it is a sad reality which does not have a happy ending

It is interesting (or perhaps just a coincidence) that in fairy tales and nursery rhymes there often appear to be three animals. We have three blind mice, not knowing what they are doing (heading in different directions); we have the three bears with Goldilocks, all being taken advantage of; we have the three pigs all trying to build something that will face up to any outside troubles. Then there are the three monkeys (though we should be reminded it is not a fairy tale) who “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”. But have we ever come cross the three bulls?

‘The Three Bulls’ is not a fairy tale or a nursery rhyme; it is a sad reality which does not have a happy ending. It is not a story about a provincial rugby team in South Africa either, and while it is often set in a school environment it is not confined there but is also found in society at large. In short, it is about bullying, for in the world where bullying exists there are three characters — the bullies, the bullied and the people who do nothing to stop the bullies. We are all one of those.

The bullies are, in a word, full of bull, blustering and charging around like a bull in a China shop. They taunt and tease weaker personalities, waving a red rag to get a reaction which will only lead to the bullied getting into trouble, with no care in the world for the damage or depression they cause. They are cowardly, weak and spineless, having to have others to back them up, always looking for approval from the hangers-on, ever in search for position and possession. As schools and as society, we need to name them for what they are — they are pathetic, narcissistic, despotic, insecure and lost. As bulls they are unaccepta-bull, undesira-bull, intermina-bull, questiona-bull, inexcusa-bull.

The second character in the story of the Three Bulls is the bullied person, the victim, the target. Such are, in effect, the bull being prepared for slaughter on the altar of egotism. Yet even within this category, there are three types of people who are bullied. There is firstly the type who react, who fight back like a bull is goaded to fight by a red rag, though generally in doing so such people often end up being punished (so lose out further). Then there are those who do not react at all, who just ignore it or soak it up, disdainfully, deliberately, diffidently. Their silence is their strength; their victim state is their victory skill. Finally, in the category of the bullied, there are those who report the incidents, who make others know this is happening; their voice is their dagger, sometimes reaching the heart of the bully but at other times affecting the mind and plans of the bully.

When it comes to the third category, which is filled by everyone else, we are not the bully (oh no, we are above that) nor are we one of the bullied ones (oh no, we are smarter than them) but we do nothing to stop the bullying or to defend the bullied. It may be because our eyes are blind to the bullying (dubious, in truth) or our hearts are hardened against it so that we do not care that it is happening (as long as it does not affect us). While doing nothing, we are, in effect, laughing at those being bullied; we may be scared of speaking up and identifying the bullies, as then the bully may attack us. Or it may just be that we say or hear or do no evil, just relieved it is not us being bullied.

Someone posted on Facebook an example of this last category. “When I was in 7th grade, our teacher put on a video and told us to take notes. Ten minutes in, she threw the lights on and shouted at one boy, telling him he wasn’t taking notes when he should have been. But the thing was, he was taking notes. We all saw it. The teacher asked if anyone wanted to stand up for him. A few of us choked out some words of defence but were immediately squashed. Quickly, we were all very silent and the boy was sent to the principal’s office. The teacher then came back into the room and said something like ‘See how easy that was?’ And the point of this? We were reading Anne Frank.

So, which one of the three are we? If anything, we must be hum-bull, tolera-bull, amena-bull. In the words of the nursery rhyme, did we ever see such a thing in our life as three blind bulls? In reality, though, there are only two bulls — the bullies and the bullied. The third group, who do nothing, are in truth bullies themselves, while if we do say something, we end up bullying or being bullied. What are we waiting for? Hopefully the three bears: bear fruit, bear one another’s burdens, bear with each other (in other words, the bare necessities). Those bears will beat those bulls.