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i nvited the peasants in to stuff themselves. The ritual drove home the
fact that the noble was on top... and the peasants on the bottom. The
Anglo-Saxon word for someone on the crest of a social heap--"lord"--
was a testament to the put-down-power of the handout. The word's
literal meaning: "loaf giver."135
The role of the giveaway as a hierarchical weapon goes all the
way back to our cousins the chimpanzees. You probably recall from an
earlier chapter that when one of these meat gourmets is lucky enough
to kill a young gazelle or a baby baboon, females, children and even his
rivals crawl toward the hunter, lowering their eyes and stretching out
their hands with palms upturned. They whimper, squirm and cry.136
Such is the power of generosity to elevate the giver and cast down
those who receive. No wonder those on whom we lavish aid are not
particularly fond of us.
Compassionate gestures have a purpose we seldom admit--they
confirm our feeling of superiority, gratifying us with the certainty that
those who receive our "help" are, indeed, below us. This makes the
recipients loathe us. They'd gladly exchange the food and blankets we
send for the opportunity to look down upon their "benefactors."137
The fathers of our foreign policy feel that by alleviating hunger,
poverty and disease, we can pull the pins out from under the urge to
shed blood and make the third world love us. The philosophy hasn't
worked. The abasement of the charity recipient is only one reason.
Another: our official definitions of want bear little relationship to the
reality of the human psyche. We assume that humans desire food,
clothing and shelter. But we forget that people crave something far
more vital: status and prestige.138 They yearn to move up in the
pecking order!
Our relief agencies ship food and medicine to the poor of South
America. But when allowed to buy what they prefer, women of South
America's underclass purchase something they consider more vital
than penicillin or protein-rich nutrient. They spend their precious
funds on...lipstick. Lipstick brings the admiring glances of men and
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