Opinion: Understanding Political Prostitutes – By SAM KARGBO
The world is right about its resolve to curb sexual narcissism, especially in men. Sexual predation is indisputably evil. It exposes the worst in humans. Psychologists and other behavioural scientists have explanations for men’s sexual disinhibitions. Some, stating the obvious, assert that men’s sexual disinhibition is easily triggered by sexual arousal. In other words, sexual arousal is capable of undermining man’s rationality and precautionary instincts. Others are quick to suggest that sexual aggression or sexual violence is an extension of men’s hostility to women. Not wanting to join issues with such views, we shall move on with the proposition that man’s hypermasculinity or perversion also leads to sexual slavery or suicide. In this respect, there is a lot for the human race to learn from bee mating.
The life of honeybees and their open-air acrobatic sex present good lessons for mankind. Unlike human communities or societies that are populated by many potent and a few sterile men and women, “a typical honeybee colony,” as Jeanna Bryner reports,“is said to comprise a large queen, 200 or so male drones whose sole purpose is to have sex with the queen, and thousands of small, sterile female worker bees.” The story here goes way beyond division of labour. Bryner goes on: “When it’s time to mate, the queen bee will fly to an area where hoards of drones are congregated in the air, waiting for their virgin… When she appears, several of these drones – one at a time – mount her… Once the mating is complete, the drone falls to the ground and dies in minutes to hours.” Call it sexual cannibalism.
Some scientists claim that honeybee queens have sex with harems of males apparently to give birth to better honeybees. Incredible! How many of us would believe that promiscuity is not entirely bad or that promiscuity in man is pushed by the natural instinct to multiply the human race while that of the woman is for breeding better species? In other words, how easy would it be for you to be convinced that multiple sex in women increases the possibility of producing healthier offspring? I can imagine how shocked a typical African would be when told that prostitution or multiple intercourse breeds better human beings. Many of us would be hard to be convinced that polyandry or sexual promiscuity is capable of promoting healthy and beneficial genetic diversity. Instead of imposing my personal views on this issue, which are bound to be termed “radical” by many, I would rather recommend Jeanna Bryner’s Mating Game: The Really Wild Kingdom.
One fact one discovers from studying the sexual behaviour or sexual patterns of animals is that humans share with animals the same sexual instincts and sexual behaviours. When scientists like Bryner say that wild animals make their own sexual rules, I concur, and add that human beings make their rules too. When Bryner declares that some female animals naturally need to mate with many males before ovulating, I say “Yes!” and that there are many women who cannot be satisfied sexually by only one man. When he says that every animal is quite promiscuous, I say there is so much tamed or suppressed promiscuity in the decent man. When he submits that by waiting on the sidelines during male-male jostling, the female animal is at the end gifted the strongest males, I smile because that is the true story of a beautiful, wise and patient woman. When Jeanna Bryner tells the story of the female Australian hanging fly that allows the males that provide the larger nuptial gifts to copulate longer, and in turn transfer more sperm, skewing paternity; and when he adds that males providing insufficient gifts get flung off by the female before insemination is complete, I show more understanding with the resource allocation tactics of female city hustlers. Just as animals swing with ease, so do we have in our community swinging men and women.
The animal kingdom is populated by many swingers. Topping the category of swingers are the bonobos that are so sex-driven that they engage in all manner of sexual behaviour, not excluding homosexuality and incest. Others include the jacanas that will kill all around a male in order to make it available to all the females in the community. The list is endless – the polygamous spotted hyena, the incestuous red jungle fowl, the African blue-headed lizard, the brown antechinus, bottlenose dolphins, hanging flies, walruses, and even lions.
The thought of swingers brings to mind political prostitutes. I must confess that I am beginning to understand the lives of political prostitutes. Just like animals whose preoccupation and concern is about their personal satisfaction, so is the sole concern – in fact, obsession – of political prostitutes. Theirs is about self-love. They are conditioned not to care – apology to Timothy Dole, the writer of “Political Prostitution”. Political prostitutes do not give a damn about “the overall picture of the governing of our country.” What matters to these characters is what they can get from the politicians. They do not trust themselves to be able to carve a respected place for themselves in the society without a clutch. They consider themselves to be irredeemable failures, and do not see a secure life for themselves outside government patronage. Good manners, decent behaviour and nobility make no sense to them.
Political prostitutes are like the female Australian hanging fly that gives as much of itself to its consort as much as the gifts it gets from the consort. Like the lioness of East Africa, the ovulation of the political prostitute is dependent on the number of masters he or she has. Like female Physocylus globosus spider that emits “high-frequency squeaks during sex to let males know what they should be doing”, the political prostitute is noisy and rancorous because of the need to attract the attention and patronage of others. Loyalty is not part of their nature. Like a commercial sex hawker who uses the platform provided by a customer to sell herself to other customers, every platform or space is an opportunity for a political prostitute to sell himself or herself.
The precarious nature of the job of a political prostitute makes it imperative for him or her to be aggressive. Like top-dog hyenas, political prostitutes are brawny and abrasive. They do not attend to issues with intellectual finesse. As wise ones say, aggressiveness is a good attribute for a creature living in a society where the majority scraps for food. One should therefore not be surprised to see the number of political swingers increasing by the day. People are hungry. Many are failing in their careers and professions.
Political prostitutes are self-convicted degenerates. Theirs is more of an escape from their conscience than self-sabotage. The political prostitutes cannot carry the burden of loyalty to a demanding society. Jumping from one political master to the other frees them from gathering moral moss. Political diseases, or if you may, political STDs are not as dangerous or burdensome as the duty to the common good. This is why I sympathize with yesterday’s foot soldiers of the people’s fundamental rights who are now the attack dogs of the oppressors of the people’s freedoms.
#Unclesamkargbo’s voice 2015
