Althouse: "Why were we born?"

October 29, 2011

"Why were we born?"

"What were we born for?"

The link goes to a commercial — in Japanese, with subtitles — for an insurance company. I am presenting it neutrally for you to comment on.

ADDED: After I watched that, YouTube suggested that I watch this ad, which I will comment on and say I liked:

72 comments:

Bruce said...: To propagate our genetic material.; 10/29/11, 10:39 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: If the purpose of this propaganda campaign is to create bureaucratic programs and regulations that reach into the schoolyard, then it is utter madness.

Just because we have good intentions, and because something sounds good...

That does not mean that it is a good idea to do something about it.

I can sympathize with the kid, but do we really want federal, state and local programs that attempt to enforce social engineering in the playground?; 10/29/11, 10:48 AM
Darleen said...: [watching the insurance ad as I hold my sleeping 2-week old grandson in my arms]; 10/29/11, 10:50 AM
Ann Althouse said...: @shouting Did you even watch that commercial? What was the solution for bullying used in that commercial? You're just making shit up to be mad about.; 10/29/11, 10:53 AM
Jason (the commenter) said...: It would have been so much better if on the second day the ginger had punched the guy in the face. Or snuck up behind the bully and bashed him on the head with a math textbook.

Threaten someone and get a broken nose. That's the solution. (You're only a minor for so many years, use it to your advantage.); 10/29/11, 10:54 AM
Jason (the commenter) said...: In regards to the Japanese commercial: sometimes these cinematic clips work, often they're just boring. Usually I'll just flip right through them.

I appreciate a nice, simple slogan.; 10/29/11, 10:55 AM
Known Unknown said...: Ginger Power!

I know, I'm missing the point.; 10/29/11, 10:57 AM
Ann Althouse said...: The alpha boy with the platinum blond hair showed empathy for the red-headed boy by dyeing his hair red too, but the blond boy obviously had bleached hair. The red-headed boy could have bleached his hair. Why does alpha boy get to switch his hair color around at will but the bullied boy is stuck with his hair color? Either hair color is changeable or it isn't, or do only alpha boys get to change how they look? Actually, only the alpha boy could get the right reaction through coloring his hair: overcoming the bullies. If the red-headed boy had changed his hair color, he would have been teased for doing that.; 10/29/11, 10:58 AM
Anonymous said...: The red head bullying clip was ok, but I found allowing the father to hold his child before he died more meaningful; 10/29/11, 10:58 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: Who said I was angry?

Perplexed would be the more appropriate word.

I watched the commercial. The usual corporate weeper.

As usual, South Park has addressed the ginger issue in greater depth and wit. I don't see anything left to say about it.

Will the liberal/corporate world of weepy concern every run out of issues to solve?; 10/29/11, 11:03 AM
Jason (the commenter) said...: Althouse: Actually, only the alpha boy could get the right reaction through coloring his hair: overcoming the bullies. If the red-headed boy had changed his hair color, he would have been teased for doing that.

I don't think the bleached blond boy was "alpha". By going ginger he showed solidarity. Bullies tend to go after solitary targets, not packs. And you'll notice that the "alpha" boy was in a pack of his own, and all of them made a point of watching the bullies on the second day. So there's the underlying threat of pack-on-pack violence.; 10/29/11, 11:05 AM
YoungHegelian said...: Okay, at the risk of souring the moment by being an awful pedant, I think the commercial is in Thai, not Japanese.

And, no, unlike James Bond, I didn't take a first in every conceivable Oriental language at Cambridge.

WV: brain --- "Brain, brain, brain & brain! What is brain?"; 10/29/11, 11:06 AM
rhhardin said...: If you stamp out school bullies, where will the real estate developers of tomorrow come from?; 10/29/11, 11:06 AM
The Dude said...: Althouse is a former redhead who became a self-murdering blonde, so of course she is going to post that blather.

Occupy Everywhere!; 10/29/11, 11:07 AM
Anonymous said...: Very sweet. Maybe some folks around here could take a lesson.; 10/29/11, 11:09 AM
Known Unknown said...: The Thai commercial was well-done.

A little long, but good.

The red-haired boy bleaching his hair would admit defeat ... that it was his hair color that made him an outcast.

Jason (the commenter) gets it right.; 10/29/11, 11:09 AM
traditionalguy said...: Very interesting.

The "who are you born for" makes perfect sense to me. That's how it works. Relationships are our raison d'etre.

The bully problem will always be a one on one problem, because the Security of the group/tribe is always temporary. To me that means imaginary.

This beta male simply needs fighting practice; which is like teaching a man to fish instead of giving him a fish.

And he has to start somewhere, why not now. Practice makes perfect and that is what finally removes fear of bullies...heck you start to want some more bullies to practice on. ( also see, Karate Kid.); 10/29/11, 11:11 AM
Wince said...: Meanwhile, in the real world...

Cancer-stricken mother dies 23 days after giving birth to daughter she saved by refusing chemotherapy treatment
(pictures and video at link)

Two days later the baby's heart rate plummeted, then Stacie's heart stopped. Code Blue was issued. Doctors and nurses rushed to her aid and decided a C-section was the baby's only chance.

Dottie Mae arrived into the world weighing less than a third of an average newborn. She was swiftly taken to neonatal intensive care, while her mother was placed in intensive care in another building...
But the cancer had affected one of her eyes and destroyed the muscle behind it,

It had paralysed her throat so that when she did talk, she was hard to understand. She had tumours on her brain. She often became unconscious and had not been able to sign Dottie Mae's birth certificate.

Stacie was too weak to be taken to her baby, and her baby was too weak to be brought to her.

'We'd show her pictures and she would cry and she would want to hold her baby,' Ray told NewsOk. 'It was quite the ordeal. I felt helpless. I wanted to help her, I wanted to do what I could for her - we all did - but they had told us it was impossible for her to see the child.'

On September 8, Stacie stopped breathing and once again was resuscitated. Hospital staff warned the family that she was very close to death.

But she had not yet held, kissed or looked into the blue eyes of the baby whose life she had chosen above her own.

Nurse Agi Beo, herself a mother, could not bear to think of Stacie's emotional pain and decided to do something about it.

She worked with nurse Jetsy Jacob and talked to Neoflight, the medical centre's neonatal transport team, about using a capsule-like ICU to safely move Dottie Mae to her mother.

'I knew all of this was going on in the background and I didn't say nothing to her until I knew it was going to happen because I didn't want to get her hopes up,' Ray said.

He asked his sister what she would would think about seeing her daughter that day. Stacie's eyes popped open and she began looking around to find her.

Soon the nurses arrived with Dottie Mae and laid her right on her mother's chest. The two stared into each other's eyes for several minutes.

'Nobody said anything, it got real quiet,' Ray told NewsOk. 'I told my sister, "You have done a beautiful thing". It was the perfect moment, that's what I called it.'

Stacie died three days later. Her funeral was on September 14.

Her obituary on the Dudley Funeral Homes website reads: 'Dottie Mae was the light of her life and her greatest accomplishment. She chose to give this baby life instead of taking treatment for herself.'; 10/29/11, 11:12 AM
gerry said...: The Japanese ad was touching, but confusing: was it selling life insurance, I suppose? Why was the baby's father telling the child to take care of mom? Insurance would take care of mom, which would be dad taking care of mom, right?

I really liked the bullying ad, mainly because it didn't propose governmental intervention; it advocated personal action.; 10/29/11, 11:13 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: Mitochondri really is the epitome of the weepy, concerned, "intellectual" idiot type of liberal.

Ostensibly, this type of liberal is determined to make the world a kinder, more gentle place.

In reality, the idea is to torture us into bland surrender to stupid, bland authority.

Mitochondi is an S&M torturer dressed up as a caring nanny.

She/he knows what's best for us.; 10/29/11, 11:13 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: The organization behind the bullying video does not believe in personal responsibility.

It's yet another liberal organization trying to get its hand on federal grant money to produce "education" and "workshops."

It's yet another arm of the octopus of money suckers known as the Diversity Industry.; 10/29/11, 11:18 AM
gerry said...: Raison d'etre - the breakfast of existentialists!; 10/29/11, 11:18 AM
edutcher said...: Commercial isn't all that sad; things like that happen every day, although I have to disagree with shout.

If anything, the ad had a somewhat religious message about how we need to help each other, not let the government do it.

As for the other ad, having been pushed around as a kid (shortest), one thing you learn is not to make yourself a target.

The business about dying your hair (or anything else you're of a mind to mention) to show your "solidarity" doesn't help the kid. Teaching him to stand up for himself does.; 10/29/11, 11:20 AM
Anonymous said...: The alpha boy was the kid with strength, the small red head was in a weak position, so changing his own hair color to blond would not have garnered protection from the bullies.Alpha boy showed strength and human decency CAN go hand in hand, by changing his hair to red he showed the bullies that he was willing to appear similar to the boy they considered weak and to bring it on , he was ready to take on the bullies.; 10/29/11, 11:21 AM
Anonymous said...: Standing up alone to huge boys twice his size? It taught the smaller boy that there are decent kind human beings in this world and something some humans use only selectively when they are adults, empathy.; 10/29/11, 11:27 AM
ndspinelli said...: We were put on this earth to help each other through this often difficult journey on earth. Organized religion has added so much baggage and horseshit to what the Good Lord simply wants from us. Both ads were superb. However, the 2nd one touched me most and it has to do w/ a lesson I learned from my father.

My old man would say @ appropriate times, "Our job is to help those who need it. And, whether anyone knows is irrelevant..God knows."

When I was in high school in the late 60's my father and I went out to breakfast one morning. A woman and man walked in and the man immediately ran over and vigorously shaked my fathers hand. the woman then gave my dad a big hug. The man was my dad's age, the woman a few years older. The man was troubled, I see back and now know he was probably schizophrenic. I quickly could see the two were brother and sister. The guy was nicknamed "Sunshine", I later learned his real name was Tommy. Sunshine insisted my Dad go outside and look @ the new car his sister had just bought.

The woman was pleasant and we started chatting. She asked, "Did your dad ever talk about what he had done for my brother?" He had not. I had heard him mention Sunshine but that was it. The woman teared up a bit and said, "Well..that's your dad. Sunshine was picked in school until your dad took him under his wing, then it stopped. After high school Sunshine had to be put in a mental hospital. Your dad would drive to Middletown and visit him every week. During the war your dad would write to him. Your dad always keeps in touch w/ Sunshine and changed his life."

The words my father would say meant much more to me after that. I have lived my life trying to be like him.; 10/29/11, 11:30 AM
edutcher said...: Mitochondri-Allie said...

Standing up alone to huge boys twice his size?

Judo, karate, boxing. They all work.

I favored the hardbound, 500 page history book, myself.

Great little equalizer.; 10/29/11, 11:32 AM
madAsHell said...: I watched the video, and came to the same conclusion as Shout. It was the URL at the end.

www.family.ca

If that doesn't smack of nanny state, than what does?

So....I followed the family.ca link. It's the Disney channel website!! Complete with Justin Boober!!

The second link, bullying.org, was much more relevant to the issue.; 10/29/11, 11:34 AM
Darleen said...: the ginger was being picked on not because of his behavior, but because of a physical trait - pigmentation - the blonde boy demonstrated the insignificance of pigmentation and the stupidity of basing relationships on such trivial matters. the ginger also realized the lesson,too, that being a redhead is no big deal.

would it be that many adults would also learn such classical liberal/conservative, anti-tribal lesson.; 10/29/11, 11:44 AM
Anonymous said...: Edutcher, yes he most definitely could learn how to be stronger by taking martial arts classes and maybe defended himself, but he learned a more valuable lesson fro the blond alpha boy.; 10/29/11, 11:46 AM
new york said...: Professionals who facilitate effective communication between individuals and groups will recommend first and foremost that swearing, name-calling, humiliation, scatological humor, and other types of verbal abuse are typically seen as inhibiting effective communication.; 10/29/11, 11:47 AM
Peter Hoh said...: For those who assumed that family.ca is a government site, please get your facts straight.

.ca is just a Canadian domain.

.gc.ca is a Canadian government site.; 10/29/11, 11:49 AM
edutcher said...: Darleen said...

the ginger was being picked on not because of his behavior, but because of a physical trait - pigmentation - the blonde boy demonstrated the insignificance of pigmentation and the stupidity of basing relationships on such trivial matters. the ginger also realized the lesson,too, that being a redhead is no big deal.

I didn't get that message at all. The kid did everything to call attention to the fact that he was a victim just waiting to be victimized (trust me, I've been there).

What you're saying, which is the intention of the ad, is a nice, feel-good message, but what it's showing is really something else.

Not picking a fight - usually I agree with you. On this one, I have a different perspective.; 10/29/11, 11:54 AM
Peter Hoh said...: Here's another tear-jerker life insurance ad. Link.

And a real life story of a father's love for his daughter from China: A farmer whose child was severely burned in a fire had surgery to donate his skin without general anesthesia, as he could not afford the medical fees.; 10/29/11, 11:55 AM
mackinnr said...: I am concerned at many peoples' response to the anti - bullying ad. Why is more violence the answer? And unless you are truly talented, you will more than likely end up bloodied and bruised by a group of bullies. Saying assault is not a government concern is similar to saying we don't need police to stop any crime, vigilante justice is fine.

I was bullied as a kid, I fought back at times, and got beat up. I would rather have avoided it all.; 10/29/11, 11:59 AM
Big Mike said...: Lovely Japanese commercial. Didn't bother to look at the anti-bullying commercial. Growing up skinny but with math and science skills in a small town where the highest ambition for nearly everyone else was to be a machinist or some other skilled blue collar worker, I was beaten up more than once. Perhaps an anti-bullying ad has something to teach a law professor; I think I know the area better than she does.

The main thing to understand is that the school systems encourage bullying. The school administrations come down with awful force on kids who merely defend themselves. The bullies know that -- they don't much care about punishments, but they know that their targets do.; 10/29/11, 11:59 AM
Anonymous said...: Regarding the anti-bullying ad- effectiveness aside-

what' the deal with a group of tween/teens sitting at the picnic table looking all forlorn? I've noticed this in the real world. Groups of kids sitting there like they just lost their best friend.

Maybe I'm unique, but my friends and I never did that. We would be laughing and having a good time. Not waiting for something fun/interesting to show up for our amusement. So much angst for such young people.; 10/29/11, 12:03 PM
David R. Graham said...: The purpose of life is to laugh, to dance and to sing. I watched the ads and they are not that. They are invasions of privacy for commercial and economic benefit.

The "Diversity Industry" is lawyers rent-seeking. So also the "Multi-Culti Industry."

Federal, state and local governments in more or less large part have become lawyers rent-seeking. That's what the general upset is about, and lawyers are rent-seeking that too. Works for them.

Centuries ago prelate lawyers were doing this. It was called "Indulgences" and "Relics" and other things. The names change, the intentions and actions do not. And by and large, neither do the actors.

Secular culture teaches to fear clergy - well, Christian clergy - and soldiers. That's projection. Secular culture is controlled by lawyers. Mohammedan "clergy"/"scholars" are, in their own outlook, lawyers.; 10/29/11, 12:03 PM
Darleen said...: edutcher

I don't believe the ginger was waiting to be a victim ... I actually think whoever scripted it (and the kid who acted) actually mirror what a kid singled out for public humiliation emotionally experiences.

Yes, I also know what it is like.

... and sometimes those emotions over whatever trivial trait one is being picked on magnifies it all out of proportion for the kid. "oh if only I was [fill in trait] then I wouldn't be picked on!"

we cannot control bullies, but we can control our reaction to them.; 10/29/11, 12:19 PM
Automatic_Wing said...: The first ad isn't Japanese. Looks like Thai, maybe.; 10/29/11, 12:19 PM
showbiz111 said...: Strange but the recent statistics show that Asians, not gays are the most bullied group in US schools. But that inconvenient fact would upset the homophobia meme of the libtards, I guess. They'd have to print Asians do great in school despite bullying.; 10/29/11, 12:20 PM
edutcher said...: Darleen said...

edutcher

I don't believe the ginger was waiting to be a victim ... I actually think whoever scripted it (and the kid who acted) actually mirror what a kid singled out for public humiliation emotionally experiences.

Yes, I also know what it is like.

... and sometimes those emotions over whatever trivial trait one is being picked on magnifies it all out of proportion for the kid. "oh if only I was [fill in trait] then I wouldn't be picked on!"

we cannot control bullies, but we can control our reaction to them.

My point, exactly. We just see it from a different angle.

mackinnr said...

I am concerned at many peoples' response to the anti - bullying ad. Why is more violence the answer?

Mostly, it's the only thing they understand and respect.

Consider the popularity of CCW around the country. It isn't because everybody's a nice guy.; 10/29/11, 12:23 PM
Sam vfm #111 said...: I was bullied as a kid and I fought back. Sometimes I won, sometimes I got the crap beat out of me. But in either case, the bulling stopped. It is the kids that don't standup for themselves, that go running to the teacher that get bullied.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card shows how to handle bullies.; 10/29/11, 12:35 PM
William said...: We enter this earth delicate and fragile, and it's a rare kid who is not at some point victimized for his fragility. I accepted this as part of my desting, but what really made me mad was those other kids. Their fragility was protected and even cherished by their parents and teachers. Why should they get to skate, and I get to suffer. Fuck them. Slap them around a few times. Crack their coccoon. Let them understand that they're not so special and that they are definitely not protected from the pain of this world. You call it bullying. It call it social justice.; 10/29/11, 12:37 PM
Lucien said...: The power of that one little word: two g's one n,one r, an i,an e . . .

"ginger" (only a ginger can call another ginger "ginger").; 10/29/11, 12:47 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: I don't think the bleached blond boy was "alpha". By going ginger he showed solidarity. Bullies tend to go after solitary targets, not packs. And you'll notice that the "alpha" boy was in a pack of his own, and all of them made a point of watching the bullies on the second day. So there's the underlying threat of pack-on-pack violence.

I agree. If he'd have been really alpha he'd have at least called out the bullies.

The bullying ad is a nice sentiment, but hardly realistic. The bullies would have just caught the red-headed kid when he was alone and smacked him around.; 10/29/11, 12:48 PM
n.n said...: There is a simple solution to bullying, racism, sexism, etc. It is not solidarity per se, which is an effect and not a cause. It is to acknowledge and accept individual dignity. It is to respect yours and others dignity. While focusing on exceptions is a profitable enterprise, it is also confusing the primary issue.

Our society has been a progressive failure in conveying and promoting acceptance of moral knowledge, beginning with the principal principle of individual dignity. The situation is further exacerbated when existence of corruption in the exception, or failure to acknowledge individuals who choose to fail, is generalized to encompass classes of people identified by their gender, skin color, etc.

As for why we were born, there is only the objective measure in the natural order. Beyond that, as entities who possess a measure of freewill, it is our right to determine our own purpose for being. However, as we exist in a world with limited resources (absolute and accessible), and our time is finite, our rights are necessarily constrained through cooperation (voluntary or otherwise) with other people.

Let's hope we reach a reasonable compromise, so that everyone will have the opportunity to preserve their individual dignity, and, to the extent possible, determine their own fate.; 10/29/11, 12:53 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: That's an ad for an insurance company? What does that have to do with insurance? I don't get it.; 10/29/11, 1:05 PM
Richard Dolan said...: What a weird comment string. Has the commentariat been afflicted by a sudden bout of constipation or something? Lots of carping about agendas, real or imagined, as if the artistry of the two short videos was beside the point.

Newsflash: politics is not what it's all about (either these videos or most everything else). Both clips had the ability to move the emotions (OK, only for normal people) powerfully, using only about a minute of no-special-effects imagery and a simple musical line. If you don't think that takes talent, give it your best shot and see if you can pull it off.

Forget whatever you may imagine to be the back story, the corporate purpose or all the rest of it. Jst admire the accomplishment for what it is. And it's quite good.; 10/29/11, 1:45 PM
Known Unknown said...: That's an ad for an insurance company? What does that have to do with insurance? I don't get it.

We live for each other. One way of keeping after or taking care of one another is via life insurace, which will see to it that the mother/child left behind have some means and resources to take care of themselves in the stead of the husband/father's death.; 10/29/11, 1:51 PM
Shouting Thomas said...: Newsflash: politics is not what it's all about (either these videos or most everything else). Both clips had the ability to move the emotions (OK, only for normal people) powerfully, using only about a minute of no-special-effects imagery and a simple musical line. If you don't think that takes talent, give it your best shot and see if you can pull it off.

Forget whatever you may imagine to be the back story, the corporate purpose or all the rest of it. Jst admire the accomplishment for what it is. And it's quite good..

You've got to be kidding. Manipulating people with video is incredibly easy. I did it in corporate video for years.

Check out YouTube sometime. You'll discover that there are literally thousands of people out there doing a very good job of manipulating people with video to advance whatever agenda they embrace.; 10/29/11, 2:06 PM
fivewheels said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/29/11, 2:39 PM
fivewheels said...: Ad 1: Trying to jerk tears out of me with a commercial is just trying to milk a bull.

Ad 2: Calling a kid "Red Riding Hood" is the definition of bullying now? And they call kids today soft...

Yes, I was an Asian kid. That made me different, and I was not a big kid, hence a target. So the first week of first grade, a group of kids gave me some racist shit and pushed me around. I asked my dad about it, and he gave me some well-meaning advice and clever words to employ that would not have worked at all.

The next day, I was surrounded by the same three kids and got shoved. I punched the main antagonist once in the gut and once in the neck (I guess I missed). I was good to go for the next five years.

Even if you lose the battle, you can win the war for respect. Maybe it seems primitive and wrong, but do you want to be left alone or not?; 10/29/11, 3:01 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: I moved to a new school in seventh grade and got badly picked on because I resembled the previous victim, gone because his parents removed him. I took it for two years. Finally my dad, an elementary school principal, let me know it was OK to fight to stand up for myself. I got into three fights the next day. My problems didn't stop, but they eased up amazingly. As time went on, I had a pretty good experience in high school while my tormentors descended into booze, drugs, and anonymity. Living well is the best revenge. My willingness to fight probably didn't scare my adversaries much, but it sure made me feel better about myself. Unfortunately nowadays nanny-state schools treat fighting as a capital crime. Kids don't get a couple of detentions for fighting, they get expelled. What do the schools propose instead? Public service announcements. The message that fighting doesn't solve anything is false and a symptom of decline. Sometimes fighting is the only solution you've got.; 10/29/11, 5:05 PM
new york said...: At the end of the insurance video, the father who speaks to his unborn child, I assume he is an actor, but there is something very genuine in the timbre of his voice. That was the most moving part for me. Maybe he (the actor), is drawing on a similar longing to overcome obstacles of time/emotion that he has had in his own life. For everyone, there are times in their life when they wish they could have been present or been a better person for a loved one going through a tough time? His voice seemed to express that longing for human connection. Very artfully.; 10/29/11, 5:26 PM
AST said...: The first ad is trying to get Japanese to get reproducing again. They have the oldest population of any industrial society and a low birthrate that threatens their economy and culture. This is also why they're so busy trying to develop robot caretakers for old people.; 10/29/11, 5:28 PM
AST said...: The anti-bullying ad reminded me of a kid in my son's class. He was small and pimply when I first saw him on a some extra curricular bus trip I chaperoned. I sat down by him and tried to strike up a conversation, but was getting nowhere, so I suggested to my son that he get to know him.

It turned out that the kid's family was broken and he was probably bullied by his dad. Anyway my son made friends with him and found they had shared interests.

A year later one of my son's teachers said that he had probably saved a life. Bullying doesn't just happen in school or on the playground.

I remember in 7th grade, I was new in town and at the school, but first other kids told me I couldn't be in 7th grade because I was too short and small to be 12. Then when the report cards came out, people started calling me a "brain." Neither one did much for my self-esteem, but I got along because I made friends who were also bright.

I was the only Mormon is the school as well, but that resulted in my real conversion, because it made me examine my faith and receive the assurance it was true.; 10/29/11, 5:45 PM
AST said...: From Wordsworth's Ode: Intimations of Immortality-

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Shades of the prison-house begin to close
Upon the growing Boy,
But he beholds the light, and whence it flowers,
He sees it in his joy;
The Youth, who daily farther from the east
Must travel, still is Nature's priest,
And by the vision splendid
Is on his way attended;
At length the Man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day.; 10/29/11, 5:54 PM
Anonymous said...: Fighting when it's warranted is essential to keeping ones self respect in the face of bullies. Siding with the bullies even though one may secretly empathize with the victim is the height of cowardice. Showing courage by being willing to side with the underdog because it would be the decent thing to do is harder, much harder.

When did it become admirable to expect the weaker or sicker or smaller,segments of our society to fend for themselves in an impossible situation? They may need a hand up, not hand out. Once most people get on their feet they fend for themselves and many pay it forward.; 10/29/11, 5:56 PM
PianoLessons said...: The Japanese ad speaks so much of the very Chinese culture value of being responsible for your parents.....

And the Irish hate the "ginger" (why do so many commenters us this word - puzzles me as a second generation Irish-person) stereotype as a "firey tempered person" almost as much as they hate the one about the Irish drunk.; 10/29/11, 6:17 PM
Anonymous said...: Hey, it's the weekend, time to relax and enjoy life. From my current placid perspective I liked both clips.; 10/29/11, 6:17 PM
DADvocate said...: I've never understood why anyone would dislike red hair or a redhead just because of their hair color. (I guess the same stupid reasons they don't like someone because of skin color.)

My mother's side of the family had lots of redheads. I had auburn color hair as a toddler, but to my dismay it turned brown. I always wanted to be a redhead. You can see most of my mother's clan in this picture from a reunion in 1965.; 10/29/11, 6:45 PM
new york said...: Thank you for the poem, Wordsworth's Ode. Poetry is very uplifting, and that is why we're here, why we're born, isn't it? to uplift and support each other, rather than denigrate and destroy.; 10/29/11, 6:52 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: The kid who dyed his hair could have just said, "Lay off him." That would have been easier.; 10/29/11, 7:26 PM
Anonymous said...: I'm with Sam Hall.

True story. When I was a kid in grade school, I was small for my age and a redhead, just like the kid in the video. I got picked on by groups of older kids, both the Greek kids and the blacks. I was fast enough that I could usually outrun them. One day, however, a bunch of them chased me up onto the front lawn of my parents' home and surrounded me. My mother saw what was happening, came out the front door, and told them that if they wanted to fight, they'd have to take me on one at a time. The first kid tried, I broke his nose, the fighting stopped, and I was never bullied again.

What I learned was never to let yourself be bullied. Never be the willing victim, whether you're a kid or an adult. When you're older, you're more likely to be bullied intellectually than physically. Don't stand for it. Most bullies are cowards. Fight back, whether it's your boss, a co-worker, a professor, or your spouse. If you don't try to put a stop to it, they will make your life miserable.; 10/29/11, 8:16 PM
jr565 said...: Taking a stand is dyeing your hair the same color? If the boy with natural red hair got pounded on by the bullies, would the guy "taking a tand actually help him from getting his ass kicked?; 10/29/11, 8:33 PM
kjbe said...: The kid who dyed his hair could have just said, "Lay off him." That would have been easier.

He did, in not so many words.; 10/29/11, 8:37 PM
jr565 said...: What would have sucked is if the guy decided to help the kid being bullied by dyeing his hair expecting the billies to come by the next day at the same time. Only this time they got their earlier and beat the crap out of the kid before the guy with dyed hair ever went out on his lunch break. So he dyed his hair for nothing.; 10/29/11, 8:38 PM
jr565 said...: Jason (the commenter) wrote:
It would have been so much better if on the second day the ginger had punched the guy in the face. Or snuck up behind the bully and bashed him on the head with a math textbook.

or even better, make fun of the bully for wearing the gay red hat, then beating the crap out of him and holding him down so that the red headed kid who had been picked on could piss on his face.

School is much harsher nowadays.; 10/29/11, 8:40 PM
gadfly said...: As a child I faced bullies and I got hurt by bullies. When my sons were in school they too faced the real world of ugly people unable to conform to society's norms. Human weaknesses beget violence and violence is returned -- thus we have wars.

Where have all the young men gone?; 10/29/11, 10:53 PM
Jim Howard said...: Here is a Chinese bank commercial that addresses the exact same question:

Dream

I think this one will appeal more to men.

As far as the bullying commercial, for once I tend to agree with Thomas.; 10/30/11, 1:03 AM
mike said...: Clearly the bully in the second ad is the kid with the bleached blond hair. By changing his hair color he's intimidating the other kid into not wearing his orange hat. What if that kid is part of the 99% and can't afford to buy a different color hat? And what if it's really cold outside? Talk about bullying.; 10/30/11, 6:54 AM