Ben X review

Bullying is common nowadays. Starting from playful banter, it can range from small jokes to severe mockery. However, the intensity of the bullying does not matter when it comes to the damage the victims gets. No matter how much you mean it, the person in the focus of the bullying will be damaged, severely.

Ben X portrays a boy suffering from autism who also suffers from school bullying. Ben finds a solution, which was to fake suicide.

A fake suicide.
In the movie, it works because it was touching. However, how is it going to apply in real life? Was faking suicide a real solution to his bullying problems? What did he get from faking suicide? The bullies, yes, might have felt embarrassed for a few days. But that does not change anything. That does not change anything at all. Everything is going to go back to normal. It's a matter of time before Ben becomes the target of the criticism and mockery. This time, the crowd will be bigger because he has made a scene nation wide.

Ben's suicide made many people worry about him. They thought he committed suicide for real. They felt sorry for ignoring him, underestimating him, and making fun of him. But then, he comes back smiling ever so brightly. If I were one of the guests in his funeral, I might have been furious. Was he joking? Dying and killing oneself is nothing to joke around with. However, Ben did make a progress in telling his classmates that he matters in this world too, that he knows how to think, that he has feelings, too. But the problem isn't that simple. The students need to "understand," not be told. Just by showing them video clips of Ben with his pants off will not make a lasting influence in them. They must feel with their own skins the severity of the crime they committed. They must see with their own eyes what their actions are going to cost them. Feeble-minded video clips do no good.

How do we get rid of bullying? Is there an effective solution? Well, no. It cannot be solved for it is very hard to enlighten a bunch of students who act the same with others. Most of the students in Ben's class probably made fun of him just because a few kids instigated the whole "making fun of Ben" thing. Those students who lead the line in harassing others are not capable of thinking about others. Adults so easily think that adequate amount of scolding and educational video clips will do the thing for them. Nonsense. Kids nowadays are more evil than what adults assume. They know how to lie, they know how to hide. They "know" how to make others suffer without getting caught. They cannot be stopped by easy behaviors of the adults. They must be punished for what they did. They must learn that they, too, will receive the same treatment they did to the weak. Eye for an eye. It is the most effective solution. We have to think about the damages the bully victims suffer from. We have to learn their agonies. The only thing that the the school and the officials can do is to execute the bullies. Punish them by law. Nothing else will work for a long time.