I know Merv. Merv walked into an antique
store where he saw a painting with a handwritten price tag that he knew was ten
percent of its actual value. It was the school holidays and a schoolgirl was minding
the store while the owner was off somewhere. Merv displayed a demeanour to show
he wasn’t to be messed with and demanded the tagged price to be honoured. The
girl shrugged and acquiesced. Merv boasted to his mates about his bargain, his
swindle and how he had taken the girl down. As a point of sales law, Merv might
have been within his rights. But morally? Well that depends on your point of
view. Which begs another question: did the schoolgirl keep her holiday job? The
painting didn’t alter Merv’s life one way or another but his use of power stimulated
his ego which means, given the chance, he’s likely do it again.
Mugabe is out of office, but he
demonstrates how power can corrupt. I
watched the cheering crowds we saw in the media, they are all dressed rather
well, which suggests to me they have done ok under his regime. Despite all,
cunning is a subtle manifestation feeding off power. I recall, my little cynic-button
clicked in during my early years in Tanzania. Tanzania was the third poorest
nation on Earth, but I noticed some people were very expensively dressed. I asked
myself: how did they attain their wealth when everyone else was poor, and who
did they stand on during their journey? Mugabe replaced a brutal, unfair system
and when he became powerful, his regime became more brutal, more unfair. Doubtless
the next one won’t change much.
But none of this random, it’s simply how
we work as a species within nature, no different to other species on this
planet. Dominance or power, and amassing whatever it takes to sustain it. I know
people who, like anyone lacking privilege, were vocal about the evils of
corruption. Perhaps jealous. However, a when they became responsible for project funds, they too took the bait. Wealth
is recognised as power and the very rich never say they’ve earned enough, or stop
accumulating, instead they take advantage of their good fortune and amass more.
Sure some ease their conscience by tossing some to charity, but they wouldn’t
sell their homes and downsize to help the needy.
The old letch Harvey what’s-his-name has
brought an overdue issue to the fore, well, perhaps that’s the wrong
terminology, more like certain women have brought him to the fore. ‘There is a
new enlightenment,’ says Jane a local film director, adding, ‘it’s fairytail
time and women are being believed and men are being fired!’ The reports say
that he was indeed even worse than most of his ilk because his attention wasn’t
welcomed. He thought he was so powerful, he thought he could get away with
anything. Just the same what goes on in Hollywood is after all, Hollywood. The what-his-name
issue isn’t going to tip the balance or change things hugely for females because
doing flies in the face of natural law and instinct. It might be distasteful to
think that way, but there we are. Nobody seemed to pillory Casanova, in fact
the opposite! Yet he openly enjoyed touching girls as young as nine! The bloke
from Coronation Street was acquitted of doing harm to young girls, but his
boast was he has slept with a thousand women! Where did he get the time? And
Beatty confessed to an over-vigorous appetite too! Maybe they were studs!
Females aren’t so lucky when it comes to terminology.
I attended a seminar about an organisation
that provides assistance to ex-prisoners, to integrate them back into society.
The biggest proportion of their clients are men, and the majority of them had sexually
offended! We heard some horror stories! Walking out of the seminar with one of
my fellows, he told me he felt embarrassed to be male. We were both in awe the
organisation’s role, and of the two women presenters who had themselves faced
abuse and experienced the tragedy of family members’ drug abuse. My mate wondered
if it had been men who presented the seminar, would we have come out with different
point of view. Point of view eh? A curious thing.
Superior beings or not, the laws of nature
still rules us as a species. While we might be a few rungs up the evolutional
ladder we have the same basic instincts as our ancestors for as far back as you
want to go. Those same instincts I witness in my sheep, my cattle, the birds in
my yard and even frogs in the swamp! A good example is lions. A lioness will
not mate with a weakling and so males have to prove their dominance by seeing
off competitors. If a male lion finds cubs that are the progeny of another
male, he will kill them! It is the law of nature to ensure survival of the fittest,
and the bloodline.
History hasn’t been kind to women who happen
to poke their heads above the parapet. Lady Jane Grey lost her head through the
ambitions of a manipulating bunch of men! After humiliating her by having her virginity
checked, Joan of Arc was put to death because men of the cloth feared her power!
Poor woman continued wearing her soldier’s uniform so the prison guards
couldn’t rape her - they would have been paid well had they been successful!
Remember the wives of Henry VIII? But here’s the thing, history isn’t only
about the famous, it’s about every single one of us! The nearest thing to
equality there has ever been is right now, and we’re still not very close.
It’s true that through history and today some
women have done very well. Curiously, I
know some women who refuse point blank to work for another woman. This is where
dominance and power comes into the equation. Power is a misused and often
corrupt tool, but with salutations to the powerful women of the world, power most
usually rests in the hands of men. Not just the big-wigs but across masculinity
in general. Rape, violence, manipulation and bullying are all tools used to
demonstrate power. And you don’t need to be very intelligent to use any or all
of them. It’s not only women they target, but the idea is to infringe rights even
by disallowing equality. Some cultures do this very well! Importantly, and take
note, not all men are like that!
The Shangri-las sang about a teenager’s
attraction to the leader of the pack,
and Sandy’s dad, and her mother for that matter, wouldn’t have been too happy
about her attraction to Danny (Grease).
Those girls highlight another twist. Like it or not, it’s that old nature’s law
for females to gravitate towards the alpha male, and humans display the same tendencies,
often not ending well and sometimes with the jailbird scenario. In the natural
world, females tend to be the providers and nurturers of the young. While alpha
males tend to be big, brash, powerful and adept at what makes males tick.
The courts might call it corruption or
stealing, but if you relate the same behaviour to a squirrel, he will rob acorns
and chase off his competition to ensure the survival of its own bloodline,
which is all that matters to him – friends don’t. Of course we superior beings make
laws and societal rules that are supposed to curb such natural instincts, but we
all know they are flaunted every day.
If there is an honest desire for humanity to
evolve differently to the rest of nature, then we have to do better. It’s nice
to think humanity has made progress and sure, we are a lot different to our
cave-dwelling ancestors. I know there will be plenty of naysayers and disagreement
with my treatise, but consider this. One of the most technological,
well-educated and economy-driven societies on earth, on 20 January 2017
installed as their new president, a man who bears all the attributes of an alpha
male.
No comments:
Post a Comment