Preempting the Doomscroll

Wanting to be somebody may not be the strongest of all urges, but it’s up there. Despite being awfully unspecific, it’s universally understood. Either somebody or nobody, that’s the choice. A false choice, but a widely accepted one.

Being awfully unspecific, somebody status means different things to different people. Achievement. Popularity. Wealth. Influence. Whatever gets you noticed, admired, remembered. It can be earned. Or finagled. It can inspire greatness. Or manufacture misery.

The best somebodies among us lift others while they rise. The worst knock others down to build themselves up.

My heart ached and tears flowed last week at the news of a beautiful, bright-eyed 10-year-old Indiana boy killing himself after enduring prolonged bullying at school. His tormentors manufactured misery, repeatedly knocking little Sammy Teusch down in the empty hope that brutality might make them appear bigger and stronger. They must have been thinking that somebody status is a zero-sum game. For on…