Red rag to a bull

Rick Mazeroski is a bully. He's also the son of the Sheriff. Maybe his behaviour is a form of emulation? As his dad pushes him around, so he feels he must push others around to live up to his father's image of masculinity? As Sheriff, his father is a leader, and Rick, too, is a leader - in his case, of a group of teenagers.

Driving down the street one evening, Rick and his friends stop to have fun at the expense of a boy about the same age, but who is strikingly different. This youth is a member of the Red Museum, a "monument to barbarism", vegetarians is cow-country. He carries himself differently, he dresses differently and, clearly, has not just different ideas but ideas diametrically opposed to the youths in Rick's little gang.

He is literally, due to the color of his turban, a red rag to a bull. And the bull, Rick Mazeroski, responds in the only way he knows how; he charges.

On this occasion, the boy from the Red Museum is fortunate, for Mulder intervenes.

Probably unused to people standing up to him, more because of who his father is than for Rick himself, the bully acts according to type. Unable to physically impose himself on Mulder, the little man tries out some big words. On seeing the approach of Scully, Rick taunts Mulder: "Yeah, well, why don't you run along with the little wife? You're going to miss the tour bus." The scene doesn't work out well for Rick and he is forced to retreat, pushing past Mulder as he slopes off.

Ditch the Label, which claims to be one of the biggest anti-bullying charities in the world, suggests several reasons why people bully others. A number of these reasons could apply to Rick. There is no sign of his mother throughout the episode. If this is a recent development due to her leaving or her death, it could be the cause of stress or trauma and, not being one to admit to or discuss his feelings, Rick expresses himself in fairly typical male fashion. Aggressive behaviour is another cause listed on ditchthelabel.org, with 66% of respondents to their annual survey who admitted to having bullied others being male. Rick is certainly an aggressive young man.

If not out of trauma, Rick could be reacting to feelings of insecurity or rejection. The latter, again, may stem from the leaving of his mother or, equally, from a father, dedicated to his job, spending little time at home, showing little affection to his son.

Whatever the reason for or cause of Rick's behaviour, there is no excuse for tormenting another. Nor does that other person's being different justify maltreatment.

But human beings never act without reason, whether it be conscious or unconscious. Understanding the reasons for bullying, or any other form of human behaviour, may help organizations like Ditch the Label provide support to both the bully and the bullied but, ultimately, will never eradicate the behaviour.

Knowing that Rick needs a father-figure to look up to and emulate gives us a way to help him overcome his need to act out his aggressions on others. Providing him with more positive role-models to emulate could well be a way to enable him to confront his bullying and learn there are other ways to deal with the feelings that need to be expressed lest they lead to the self-destruction that is their inevitable end.

This is no liberal-minded, do-gooder approach. It is the only possible approach in a world that prides itself on having achieved individuality for all. There are fewer connections between human beings today than there has ever been in our past, fewer lessons that are learned collectively, less of a sense of community in which each is accountable and responsible for each other.

Rick's behaviour may stem from any of the reasons mentioned but, more than any of these, it stems from the reality of his - and our - situation of having no one but a distant father to look to for guidance. Gone are the equally authoritative and responsible others who, once upon a time, would have had both the right to chastise aberrant behaviour and the responsibility to provide the security missing in Rick's life. With fewer people to rely on, the chances of making wrong choices increases.