Why Power is used

I'm trying to understand why people can be very mean to those they perceive to be "below" them. My father disliked people who were matapobre. He once yelled at an officer of his court for using unreasonable force to move a vagrant from the area. "Wag ka ganun sa pobre!!!" (don't do that to a poor man) he yelled at the officer.

I remember him telling me that true power came from within. Being able to control your anger and diffusing it to something positive was a lot harder than lashing out and acting crass or rude. "The dogs bark when they're mad cause its the only thing they can do, but we are intellectual so we must learn how to speak!"

Which brings me to my point for tonight. Why would someone lash out and try to make someone else feel bad by berating them or talking ill or just by being hostile in general? I can think of two reasons.

The valid reason to lash out is, like my father would do, to protect someone from a wrong or prevent a wrong from happening. You discipline the wrong-doer and you try to make your community better.

The other reason, which may be wrong or right depending on your standpoint, is to give a false sense of power or security. I'm sure we all know of that someone in our community that cannot get by without making sure someone else is put down or feels inferior. That my readers, is insecurity manifested through abrasiveness.

Good breeding cannot be bought, it is learned from years of honing by a person who himself is well-bred. Good breeding does not necessarily mean snobbery or haughtiness, but a certain strength, a security that tells people, I do not have to hurt others or put them down, because I know better, and have been taught to hold myself out to be better and nothing you can say will make me do what is wrong because I know I do not need your validation to tell me what I'm doing is right.

In that sense, it may sound a bit arrogant, but the righteous should be strong otherwise, we'd all end up acting like barbarians.