Some people say that we shouldn't judge Mitt Romney harshly for his being a bully in his teenage years.
(note: While this diary title is a riff on a diary title on the rec. list, I realize that diary was lampooning those who think we shouldn't judge Romney for his actions. Unfortunately, its an attitude that I've seen expressed seriously by a disturbingly large number of people around the interwebs.)
Me? You better believe I'm going to judge Mitt for the bullying he did when he was younger. And why shouldn't I? Its not like the effects of the bullying go away for the victim of the bullying. Those of us who bear the scars of bullying, be they physical or emotional, carry that burden around with us well into adulthood. We don't magically leave these scars in our childhood. It changes our personality and leads to diminished prospects in terms of jobs, relationships, and friends. Its hard to overstate the negative impact it can have on a person's mental health.
As Emily Anthes wrote in the Boston Globe:
These neurological scars, it turns out, closely resemble those borne by children who are physically and sexually abused in early childhood. Neuroscientists now know that the human brain continues to grow and change long after the first few years of life. By revealing the internal physiological damage that bullying can do, researchers are recasting it not as merely an unfortunate rite of passage but as a serious form of childhood trauma . . .studies have shown that the emotional abuse from peers turned out to be as damaging to mental health as emotional abuse from parents
And as Dr. Michael Miller, editor in chief of the Harvard Mental Health Letter noted:
Victims of chronic childhood bullying are more likely to develop depression or think about suicide as adults compared with those who weren't bullied.
And as the
Suicide Prevention Resource Center noted:
Bullying, and especially chronic bullying, has long-term effects on suicide risk and mental health that
can persist into adulthood (Arseneault et al., 2010). One review of the research concluded that bullying
can cause (or contribute to) “comparatively low levels of psychological well-being and social adjustment
and to high levels of psychological distress and adverse physical health symptoms” (Rigby, 2003).
So being a victim of bullying ain't exactly left behind in childhood. So why should a bully, when he is an adult, bear no negative judgments from the bullying he did when he was younger? That negative effect is certainly a lot milder than what the victims face as adults.
Of course, some people do change and improve, and certainly their teenage misdeeds may not be the full measure of their worth as a person. But I still reserve the right to judge them for those misdeeds.
So yes, I will judge Mitt Romney harshly. What can I say...he'll get over it.