Our first experience of belonging (or not, for some) is of a family.  And even in dysfunctional families, the parental authority, if it’s worth anything enforces the “he/she is weird, but he/she is ours.” In school, also, for the truly odd kid, the teacher and the supervising assistant, or whatever, are the ones who intervene to stop abuse by peers.

So at the back of the mind of a lot of oddlings — no matter how or what makes you odd — is the idea that a benevolent dictator could MAKE others accept you.  That you could fit in.

I completely understand the radicalization of minorities.

via Belonging — The Great Divorce a Blast from the Past From September 2015 — According To Hoyt

Oddly, I never got the idea in all of my bullied days that a more active, benevolent authority would have helped me. What I absorbed from my school days was that school officials were well-meaning and helpless. The official rules of the school were impossible to enforce in their entirety; there were simply too many violations. So the appearance of order was the goal. The bottom of the social hierarchy had simply to get through the day as best they could.

Just remember, bootlegging didn’t stop in Chicago just because Capone went to prison.

Anyway, Read the whole thing.