Wil Wheaton on the age-old question of what to do when you run into your former nemesis:
I’ve often wondered . . . if I ever ran into one of my childhood tormentors, what would I do? Pretend nothing ever happened? Cock-punch? Point and laugh? I don’t know . . . I’d like to think I would rise above it and act like the mature adult and parent of two teenagers that I am . . . but I’m pretty sure I’d end up doing the cock-punch.
Having been on the geeky side, and introverted to boot during grade and high school, I was frequently on the receiving end of the cruelty and violence of childhood idiots and budding psychopaths. Oftentimes they were protected by administrators if they were happened to be jocks. I once had a grade school principal inform me that “fighting back makes it worse.” All the while, the coward refused to do anything substantive to prevent me getting harassed, sucker punched and bullied on a regular basis by lowlife thugs with two+ years and fifty pounds on me. In other words, his message to me was that Lord of the Flies was the state of affairs, so just shut up and take it.
So, I guess that deep down inside, I would have to vote for cock-punch. Of course, I’ve not done it personally. At least not since high school in self-defense. But I’ve wanted to.
Really. Really. Bad.
I guess I’ve learned a little discipline in the Corps and in my experiences since then. Which is something my tormentors never experienced, nor could they handle. That said, given that my url is attached to my profile in several alumni registries, I’ve no doubt that some of my former “buddies” have been by to see what I’ve been doing since leaving Central Illinois. As much as I’d like to hold a grudge, I’m sure that most of them have grown up and out of such behavior. For them, I’m fully willing to let bygones be bygones. That said, I know for a fact that some have not fully grown up and out of the arrogance and sense of entitlement that fueled the fires of their actions. For them, I’d rather deliver Wil Wheaton’s dreaded cock-punch. Not that I would, mind you. But its there, looming in the back of my mind…