Rich Men’s Jokes Are NOT That Funny!
…. but how will you feed your family if you
don’t laugh?
Have you seen how men behave around a rich man? Think Freedom Sikazwe-style laughter and worse, having nothing to offer in return.
Because we do it. Prostitute our self worth and decency to a man with money in the bank in exchange for maybe a government contract, money for fuel, rentals or a cold beer.
See how your area MP or councilor behaves like a schoolboy in the presence of a headmaster whenever the Republican President stops to say hi. It doesn’t matter whether they just posted hate speech, they crumble. Big smile, short memory, as the saying goes.
Masculinity has a hierarchy where somebody’s feared and respected husband and father is another man’s clown.
All because if you laugh and entertain a powerful man, you could walk away with something for fuel or school fees for the kids.
Straight men think nothing of near romanticism with any man that chairs the procurement committee for road or hospital construction. Complimenting his atrocious suit from Nakonde and thirteen year old smartphone because he decides who gets a contract.
It’s not a new phenomenon to laugh like a
constipated hyena when the men that feed us crack what is usually a mundane joke. This has created Presidents, CEOs, leaders and men that can do no wrong or get called out for it by other men. We are not accountable to each other.
It’s simply not sustainable. There is a man that will always laugh louder than you. Another that is willing to take groceries to a boarding house on behalf of the big man. Others? They’ll bury a body or two. Others will exhume said bodies,.
Once you go down the path of being a clown for a rich man, there’s very few detours back to your own life’s highway.
Your life is dependent on him choosing to leave his bedroom. You wait on edge for his Facebook posts like a mechanic in Panganani Road. You’re basically in a state of panic because you cannot stand on your own goals and beliefs.
But isn’t it dignified to earn your peanuts without demeaning yourself? Yes, we must find ways to feed the mouths of our children but really, at what cost?
The cost of bringing something of value
wherever you go. Not being able to dig deep into your talent or gift, education or experience. Ambling along in life, hoping another man has woken up in a good mood?
Men these days have ceded their ambition, goals and drive to the richest man in the room. It is a culture of appeasing the boss so you can eat.
Freedom is when a rich or influential man walks into a room and you don’t rush to laugh at his jokes. But the man picks you out because you make him and his pack of hyenas laugh, not because you have money but a rich perspective.
