Our famished road of flattery
A parliament member appeared on a late night show, but that's not why I am writing today. She claimed to have recurrent nightmares since she attended a political rally, which came under grenade attack. And, guess what she said about what she says when she wakes up in the middle of the night? In a subconscious slip, she screams after all these years if her leader was safe. Now I will tell you why I am writing today. I spent the rest of that night sorting out whether what she said was flattery or Freud.
Many times they overlap. People have complex emotions when it comes to those they worship and admire. There is nothing wrong with it. They can be in sincere awe of those who are gifted and superior. But there is a crossover where the lauder becomes lackey. Flattery is insincere praise with a manifest objective. Its sole purpose is to win favours for personal benefit.
So, flattery is praise with a selfish twist. It defies the law of gravity, going high from low. People also resort to flattery for the sake of survival. Not too long ago, we saw this circus on television. The scion of a political family was flanked by two senior politicians, both of whom smiled at the camera. They said they were delighted that a young man half their age was anointed party boss.
This is what anthropologists call the "pecking order," when weak animals pay court to strong ones. It involves fawing, flattery and falsification. Richard Stengel writes in You Are Too Kind: A Brief History of Flattery, that harmless snakes mimic the bright colours of poisonous ones. Similarly, butterflies that might be eaten by predatory birds mimic the colours of their foul-tasting cohorts. In the Darwinian world, imitation of the fittest also ensures preservation of life.
But chimpanzees take this matter too far. The suborinate chimp greets the alpha male, sometimes even kissing his feet, or bringing a leaf or stick as offering. There are other things weak chimps do for the pleasure of strong ones. Females offer their backsides for sniffing and inspection.
Flattery in the human world is much more complicated. We don't do it entirely for survival. It's not done entirely out of servility either. Here the weak flatter the strong over a wide range of matters. Often the matter exceeds this world, entering the next life.
For example, a writer named Ptahhotep in ancient Egypt offered advice on how to ingratiate with the Pharaoh. One should laugh after the Pharaoh laughs, because it was going to be very pleasing to the Pharaoh's heart. What was flatterer's reward for a job well done? He was to be buried near the Great One's tomb, so that he could continue to flatter his master even after death.
There was a time in this country when flattery was tradition. Subjects couldn't walk with their umbrellas open in front of their zamindar's house. They also couldn't wear their shoes, and were forced to carry them under their armpits. It was considered insolence if a person of low birth looked a highborn in the eye. Rules of engagement between lesser and greater were turned into rituals.
Times have changed. So have rituals. Flattery persists as a relic of exploitation of men by men. The weak still pays court to the strong. The low-salaried pays court to the high-salaried, the less powerful to the more powerful, and less fortunate to the more fortunate. One's wish is another's command. Bribery is flattery in cash. Flattery is bribery in kind.
In Ben Okri's The Famished Road, Azaro's father tells him that greed and insatiability resulted in the creation of a monster. When this monster couldn't find enough animals to eat in the forest, it came out on the roads travelled by men. This famished monster of the road became part of all the roads in the world. He is still hungry, and he will always be hungry. This is why there are so many accidents in the world.
For us that monster proves even worse. The men in the villages now walk with their umbrellas open and wear their shoes. Most of them can look others in the eye. But the monster has come out from darkness to light. It has devoured the enlightened path, still hungry for more. Education has eclipsed us.
Under the new feudal order, subjects don't open their mouths in front of their masters. They don't tell the truth, and wear obedience on their sleeves. They don't look their lords in the eye. In suits and boots, this marching army of ambitiuos folks is ready to do anything to build their careers. On this famished road, light snatches its own lustre. We live in the growing shadow of being flattered to flatter.
Mohammad Badrul Ahsan is a columnist for The Daily Star.
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