School bullies. . . What makes them tick?

I would love to know what a school bully get's off on. What makes them the person that they are?
I would love to hear views from both ends of the stick.
Have YOU been a victim with a school bully? . . . What happened?
Have YOU been a school bully? . . . What made you inclined to pick on people?

I was bullied. I think bullies are really self-loathing people who can't feel good about themselves unless they are picking on people they perceive to be weaker. I think they also know that the kids they likely are picking on aren't the type to fight back so it's low-risk.

A destructive mix of arrogance, fear and self-loathing. No one is perfect, we're all guilty of snickering at someone else's expense, but well adjusted people don't menace others. Even the strongest, most ferocious, street fighter bully has several secret buttons that would reduce him or her to tears if they were pushed.

I think that a lot of people who are bullies think that they are not at the height of popularity and they figure it behooves them to bring as many people down so that they (bully) can manitain whatever social rank they have, or maybe even move up a bit.

Also, I think that for some it is acting out because of things going on at home and not having a voice about that.

Fucked up home life.

A lot of times, they're just jealous. I wouldn't say I had a bully persay, someone who took my lunch money or anything like that, but there was this one girl when I was in the 7th grade that just did not like me at all. And I never did anything to her. Every chance she got she would talk about me like a dog and it was weird because I was cool with her sister (even she could be a little bitch too). I remember when she called me a bitch to my face in front of a bunch of people at a basketball game. I was 12 yrs old, she was 14 and about 250 lbs so I was smart enough not to swing on her. Luckily, I was with my older cousin who went to school with her and she went to the game with us so I went and got her and told her what she said. Cuz came with me to find her and we basically handled that. Come to find out that she didn't like me because they was a guy she liked who liked me. And the fact that she was bald-headed and I wasn't, lol.

What makes them tick is people who fear them. If you aren't intimidated by bullies, chances are they will leave you alone.

I think the reasons why certain kids bully another is that there's an unhappiness inside of them. I think they have to put other people down to make themselves feel better, which is quite pathetic. No matter how tough they may appear, they're weak inside and using other people as an excuse to get out their unhappiness and anger. I also think that with bullies, they can't stand people who are different, they can't stand anyone different than themselves.

Like Forgiveness_Man, I was bullied when I was in school and it had nothing to do with fear, because I didn't fear them and I always stuck up for myself.

I think bullying is like a drug and for a few fleeting seconds they feel "high". Then they crash and have to keep on doing it to get that fix. All it is is projecting how messed up they feel on the inside onto others so that they can feel empowered for a minute.