From the Art of War to the Art of Being Bullied?

TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 17 Mar 2025

Anthony Judge | Laetus in Praesens - TRANSCEND Media Service

From Playground Bullies to Imperial Powers — and Beyond

Introduction

17 Mar 2025 – The world is currently witness to various explicit assertions by the self-acclaimed leader of the free world — speaking in the name of the American people — to the effect that:

These unusually explicit intentions and demands are highly reminiscent of the dynamics in any playground for children of various ages. Hence the many references to “playground politics” — whether in reality or as a metaphor. They are also reminiscent of exposure to a “demand that cannot be refused”, as with racketeering in criminalized societies. Whilst they may be variously condemned as “bullying” and therefore “unacceptable”, such condemnation is of little relevance to those exposed to such demands — as with the terrifying formative experience of being bullied in a playground.

The scope of the problem with respect to children is indicatively presented for the USA by the National Bullying Prevention Center, where one out of every five (19.2%) students report being bullied, a greater proportion being female (Bullying statistics: by the numbers). 100% of student participants reported experiencing, witnessing, or being aware of acts of bullying during the 2021-2022 school year. Other sets of data are variously available for bullying in the workplace, bullying in academia, sexual bullying, and cyberbullying. Potentially meriting particular attention is the bullying in legislative assemblies, international organizations, and embassies (Stephen M. Walt, Bullies Don’t Win at Diplomacy, Foreign Policy, 7 June 2018; Bruce Haigh, The all-American Coercive Diplomacy: bullying by any other name, Pearls and Irritations, 30 September 2021; Phil McAuliffe, On bullying, harassment and discrimination in diplomacy, The Lonely Diplomat, 18 April 2020; Diplomatic Bully: Australia’s climate obstruction in the Pacific revealed, Greenpeace International, 3 November 2021).

There is little data on “bullying” by collectives and nations — raising the question as to the extent to which the Global South is experienced there as “bullied” by the Global North (Wesley Seale, Trump’s Bullying, Threats ‘A Desperate Attempt to Intimidate’ Global South Nations, The African, 10 December 2024; Kudakwashe Mugari, No more bullying of nations: G77, Herald, 21 January 2024; Ron Derby, Who will be the bully in a changing world order? Mail and Guardian, 15 June 2023).

Resistance is often framed in terms of direct opposition — meeting force with force, whether in the playground, the political arena, or on the battlefield. Yet history reveals that when the powerful impose their will, direct confrontation often leads to destruction for the weaker party. The alternative lies in strategies that do not rely on sheer strength but instead on intelligence, adaptability, and the ability to redirect aggression.

From the experience of bullied children navigating social hierarchies, to small nations facing geopolitical giants, to prisoners surviving in coercive institutional cultures, the principles of martial arts and psychological aikido suggest methods by which power can be deflected rather than met head-on. Indigenous cultures resisting colonization, and even the hypothetical scenario of humanity facing a technologically superior extraterrestrial force, further illuminate this strategic dynamic.

It is therefore no surprise to discover the many references to the much acclaimed strategic classic by Sun Tzu (The Art of War) as being variously of relevance to the challenge of bullying — in addition to those highlighting the remedial role of aesthetics in the “art of being bullied” (Raymond Brune, The Art of Being Bullied: reframing trauma one masterpiece at a time, 2024; Art Against Bullying, Erasmus Project of the European Union, 2023). The extent of the problem worldwide has evoked the creation of an International Bullying Prevention Association, an International Association on Workplace Bullying and Harassment, an International Journal of Bullying Prevention, and a World Anti-Bullying Forum.

The emphasis in what follow is however on the empowerment of those vulnerable to bullying rather than remedial responses or the challenge for authorities in the management of bullying in their domains, as exemplified by Maria Lourdes G. Tan’s The Art of War on Handling Bullying: the case of school administrators in a Philippine University (International Journal of Innovative Research and Development, 10, 2021, 1). Somewhat ironically, but of potentially greater relevance, there are even adaptations of Sun Tzu’s classic for children (Martin Kostadinov, I, Sun Tzu: The Art of War for Kids, 2024; Rey Lijesta and Jesse Tamburino, The Art of War: Baby Edition, 2015). The question os whether there are other insights from the martial arts (John E Guzzardo, Young Males and Bullying: a little Sun Tzu never hurts, 3 October 2015).|

This exploration seeks to identify the “katas” of psycho social resistance — the disciplined, repeatable practices by which the seemingly powerless can turn the energy of domination back on the aggressor. Are there overlooked lessons in Eastern philosophy, military strategy, or indigenous wisdom that could be systematized as a form of social aikido? And in an era where multinational corporations and artificial intelligence wield unprecedented control, what does it mean to be “overpowered” — and how might resistance evolve in response? A set of 29 “institutional katas” was identified by Thierry Gaudin, in a book titled:  L’Ecoute des Silences: les institutions contre l’innovation (1978). An English translation of that 29-fold set was presented separately as The Institutional Katas (2016) in a discussion of Game-playing in Global Governance? (2016) — framed in terms of Engaging an Opposing Ideology via Martial Arts Philosophy (2016).

The presentation continues the experiment with AI in the form of ChatGPT 4o. The responses have been framed as grayed areas. Given the length of the document to which the exchanges gave rise, the form of presentation has itself been treated as an experiment — in anticipation of the future implication of AI into research documents. Only the “questions” to AI are rendered immediately visible — with the response by AI hidden unless specifically requested by the reader (a facility not operational in PDF variants of the page, in contrast with the original).

Reservations and commentary on the process of interaction with AI to that end have been discussed separately (Methodological comment on experimental use of AI, 2024). Editing responses has focused only on formatting, leaving the distractions of any excessive “algorithmic flattery” for the reader to navigate (as in many social situations where analogous “artificial” conventions are common). Readers are of course free to amend the questions asked, or to frame other related questions — whether with the same AI, with others, or with those that become available in the future. In endeavouring to elicit insight from the world’s resources via AI, the process calls for critical comment in contrast with more traditional l methods for doing so.

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