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Laughing At; not With

Whether you are a politician or an actor, a neighbour or a gas station attendent, it is necessary to know how others see you.

There was a ‘comedian’ (term used loosely) in my country,  who used to chat  loud mouthed patwa, and everyone would laugh.  People were laughing at her.  They thought she was a stupid clown.

She didn’t realise it for a long enough time to feel absolute shame, shame to appreciate that her audience didn’t think she was pretending to be this uncouth fool, they thought she was.

If you know how the public views you, whether you are a lawyer before a jury or a teacher in front of a class, then you start ahead of the pack.  You know what your image is, you know how to use it.

If you don’t know, then you make a fool out of yourself, thinking that the jury admires you, when they find you a pompous jerk, or that the kids in front of you consider you the worst teacher they ever had.

Very often, if one is surrounded by flunkies they will never know how the public really sees them.  If they are smart, they’ll try to get some ‘eyes’ on the ground.  Eyes that come with an honest tongue.

If not, they’ll proceed along until humiliation.

‘Pharaoh’, the leader of an organisation, did not know this is what we called him behind his back. He thought himself ‘in charge’  thought he was ‘admired’ and considered himself… well… a Pharaoh.

When he was booted out of office, totally disgraced, he couldn’t grasp what had happened.

This is because he only saw and heard what he wanted, not how the membership actually felt.

Today, the view of America had changed.   Gone is the respect and consideration that existed since World War II and come is the same kind of sneer people have for Third World dictators.

The world is scurrying to make deals with ABA…(Anywhere But America)… and China has jumped in, buying from the Third World in an incredible frenzy.

The Third World, (most of the world) doesn’t need America.

Whether a car or a television or clothes, whether weapons or windows, everything that was bought from the United States is now being gotten from China and other nations.

Those who once respected America are laughing at the gaffes and grumbles,  feeling better about their ‘sh8thole’ nation than they have before.

And the joke is that America doesn’t know.

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What do you think?

Written by jaylar

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