Wijze koe en jonge os

Dat er in Zimbabwe een hoop dingen scheef zitten, weet u onderhand.
Vandaag kwam ik op de website van ZimOnline een mooi gesprek tegen tussen een wijze koe en een jonge os. Het is een hele lap Engelse tekst, maar ik wil het u niet onthouden. Het verklaart een hoop.

Why are we so greedy?

A young ox meets the Wise Cow on the pasture of (Grace Mugabe's, GM) Gushungo Farm

Ox: Wise Cow, please explain something to me which I do not understand.

Wise Cow: Of course, if I can help you further. What is your question?

Ox: Wise Cow, I have never understood and do still not understand why human beings here are so greedy that they destroy the country and even the people’s lives rather than control their greed and selfishness.

Wise Cow: You will find greed deeply rooted in human beings all over the globe. Does the greed among our regional people seem special to you?

Ox: Yes, I see signs that there is something special about greed here. Why is it so disastrous?

Wise Cow: Let me think a bit over that question and how to put the answer.

Ox: Of course, take your time.

The Wise Cow chews the cud for a little while.

Wise Cow: OK. Do you know what a social role is? Human beings can exist only within a pattern of social roles.

Ox: A social role is being a father, a brother, a son, a friend, a lover, an artist, a craftsman, a boss, a servant; I think I know the concept.

Wise Cow: Yes, for a human being it is very important to understand what the society is expecting of him. If he does not fill his most important social roles he cannot be a member of the society, he cannot have his secure place within the society and he does not know who he is in the first place.

Ox: But how can he find out what the society is expecting and what his most important social role is all about?

Wise Cow: The society constantly tells him that. He is told that from the beginning of his life. Before he can understand anything else he understands the meaning of social roles. Perhaps he understands that already when he still seems to slumber in his mother’s womb.

Ox: Really, how could that be?

Wise Cow: Because his mother has also internalised her social role. Because the baby is a member of the society and nothing without the society. It suckles the notion of social roles with the motherly milk from the first day.

Ox: But I doubt that being greedy is a social role for humans.

Wise Cow: No, no, they clearly understand that greed is a sin even when they are not religious at all. But if a certain social role is very important it can bring with it utterly greedy behaviour.

Ox: The social role pattern is so overwhelming that it can easily beat the desire not to be perceived as a greedy person?

Wise Cow: Exactly that. It can even shift the view of a person about what greed is and what a sound thriving for commodities is. The latter may be grossly exaggerated and catch a whole nation in a quagmire but it seems the best thing for the person to carry on with.

Ox: But how can that be?

Wise Cow: In this society here there is an old tradition that for males the most important role is considered as to be an acknowledged breadwinner.

Ox: But that’s good.

Wise Cow: Of course, but it’s bad if the other social roles’ importance is insignificant in comparison to the breadwinner role.

Ox: You mean it is bad if all the other social roles of the man are rather meaningless or neglected compared with the breadwinner role?

Wise Cow: Yes. Since uncountable generations in this society young boys have learned as soon as they have understood the concept of social role that they are expected be breadwinners in the first place. Only filling that role will secure them their undisputed place in their society. Without achieving such place they will feel undignified and in fact without dignity, a human being is just withering away.

Ox: I see. But what has greed to do with that? I still don’t understand.

Wise Cow: Well, the overwhelming power of the role of a breadwinner while at the same time other social roles are marginalised makes the ordinary man greedy.

Ox: But what balance would the other social roles bring into account?

Wise Cow: Look, the role of a breadwinner does not necessarily include the role of a caretaker. A man in this society is a caretaker only concerning breadwinning and only insofar as he is doing that for his family. He is not a caretaker in terms of feeding the baby, of nursing his sick wife, of comforting his kids, in terms of feeling responsible for their grievances and all the small or big odds of daily life they face, in terms of being a sensitive and imaginative lover.

You will see him going around with his boyfriend at his hand. You will not see him with his wife at his hand in public. He is not backing her and helping her in public. He is only a helping hand when it comes to breadwinning but in most other respects he is himself asking for helping and caring hands.

He is not a caretaker when solidarity is demanded outside his house. He does not take care for his neighbours. He is not a caretaker for the reign of principles. He is not a caretaker when it comes to protect the law. He is a caretaker when his house toilet is blocked but not when sewage water is flowing openly in the streets. He cares when it comes to load shedding in his house but doesn’t when neighbours disappear.

He is convinced that he deserves every respect and service as long as he fills his breadwinner role – the society has taught him so since many generations. And in his role as a breadwinner he is in fierce contest with other breadwinners.

This role gives him the more respect and dignity the more commodities he can provide to his family. On the other hand his baby never feels his caring hand changing his nappies, holding the feeding bottle, it never hears its father’s heartbeat because he does not carry it around. The teenage kids have to stay without his guidance in the most parts of their precarious daily lives because he feels not obliged to deal with their worries, inner problems and puberty conflicts and there are no social patterns available in his surroundings he could just adopt for such purposes. If he really would care he would have to go out of his way and would even be regarded suspiciously for such behaviour and attitude.

Ox: And as he has almost nothing to offer from that side for his family – the average man – he is concentrating on his breadwinner role?

Wise Cow: Now, can you see the inevitable reason for him to become greedy, as he has to provide enough commodities to fill in all the emotional gaps?

Ox: I understand, but what if circumstances whatsoever do not allow him to be a decent breadwinner?

Wise Cow: That will drown him in anxiety and disintegration. In the worst case he will leave his family behind in dire straits and go to foreign countries claiming to find the bread for them somewhere. He in fact prefers to leave his family in limbo if he cannot fill his hereditary role as a breadwinner with them.

Ox: I understand. He will in this case rather abandon his family all together although he could be the fatherly centre and buttress of the family house in many other respects. But as he has nothing to offer here and otherwise cannot fill in his normal social role as a breadwinner he is forced to leave the field of his defeat. And the woman will not even plead with him to stay?

Wise Cow: Yes, in such a loser situation he could even become criminal or even a dictator’s bootlicker.

Ox: Beah!! But why are the wives so greedy, too?

Wise Cow: Their attitude is growing on the same branch. Wives in this tradition feel strongly that their average husbands are not profound and reliable partners in any emotional respect. They are constantly disappointed, as they do not get what they really need from their husbands. Since commodities is all they can get from the average husband and as they are starved of everything else, they want to have as much commodities as possible from their husbands and therefore get greedy themselves. Their self-respect as wives simply depends on those commodities. It is common for them to stand independent, work and do business themselves to fend for their kids, and they will look with disrespect at their husbands if they are failing their most important social role as breadwinners. To be an exceptional wise, amicable, man and far-sighted caretaker may help a man in such cases. But this is what only too few of them represent under the said circumstances.

Ox: If you put it like that, it can explain the abnormal greed we see in that country. But is there any hope for a change among those human beings to ease their personal distress and at the same time ease the woes of the country?

Wise Cow: Yes, if an ox would talk to them and made them thinking about the problems caused by traditional social roles and if the not average people would create and try out better-tailored social roles – then yes – it could make a difference. Mind you, to be a trendsetter is the most difficult social role all together.

Ox: But they will say it’s just not true all together – your analysis. They will feel insulted!

Wise Cow: Of course!

Ox: But they will slaughter me for that.

Wise Cow: They will slaughter you anyway.

(Iona Viertheiler, ZimOnline)