At the age of 12, Amanda Todd, a Canadian, was persuaded to expose herself topless on a webcam to a suspected paedophile she’d met online; he then sent the images to her friends and teachers. That led to her being bullied at school, so she moved school – but the man continued to stalk her, and sent the footage to her new classmates, who circulated it further. Amanda told her story in a YouTube video, using flash cards to describe how the bullying had plunged her into a depression, and how she’d attempted suicide by drinking bleach. On one card she wrote, next to a picture of a sad face: “I have nobody. I need someone.” Five weeks later, she was found hanged at her home in British Columbia.

I myself was witness to the most dreadful bullying at school, bullying that made that described in Tom Brown’s Schooldays seem petty.  Since that time I have been a fierce advocate for expelling from school anyone guilty of this behavior.  But now we have something even more cravenly cowardly – bullying via the Internet.

I have observed that the bullies seem, in general, to a be a type – desperate to be liked and to fit into a tribe or gang, the future conforming ” good ole boys” of the country club, ingratiating themselves at any opportunity with those in power.

Those of us who admire Epicurus and his attitude to life should speak out against all forms of bullying, whether it comes from politicians, workmates or at school.  People with genuinely good values and ethics have to defend the weak and vulnerable.