Tall Poppy Syndrome: Unamerican
One significant cultural difference between America and Canada is our attitudes toward the successful. Americans tend to uncritically admire a success, while Canadians suffer from a Commonwealth malady known as "Tall Poppy Syndrome", which can best be described as a tendency to "put people in their proper place". Even nobel peace prize winners and prime ministers aren't immune to the opprobrium of the masses. Consider the following quote from anecdotage.com:
"There are those who would say that the uneasiness Canadians have with titles reflects something approaching hostility toward anyone who rises too far above the crowd. The great Canadian novelist Robertson Davies used to tell of the response at a reception in British Columbia when the news came that Lester Pearson, later the Prime Minister of Canada, had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. 'Well!' somebody said. 'Who does he think he is!'"
Tall Poppy Syndrome is hardly unique to Canada. "Taking the piss" out of a successful person is a common practice in New Zealand and Australia, and I've heard my friend Peter Thompson from Northern Ireland use the phrase more than once.
What I don't understand is why Tall Poppy Syndrome is not endemic to the United States, a country that eschews honorifics like "Sir" and frowns on the notion of royalty. Americans are famous for excusing the flaws of successful creeps like Donald Trump, and elevating celebrities--even Hillary Duff-- to an almost godlike status. Americans seem to want nothing more than to rise above the crowd, to the point where "keeping up with the Joneses" is a national obsession.
Some have fretted that the syndrome might lead to societally enforced mediocrity. High acheiving school children,they argue, might reign themselves in to win the favour of their peers; a brown coffee mug from a donut chain could become a country's most recognizable corporate symbol abroad;loudmouth hockey commentators like Don Cherry might be listed amongst the nation's proudest assets.
In the great TSP-free zone south of the border, however, American hero-worhip and desire for status might lead to unhealthy extremes: Everything has to be bigger, better, flashier, etc. Good enough is never good enough. A good example of this is as close as your choice in coffee. In Starbuck's, the iconic American coffeeshop you can no longer order a "small coffee". The smallest size available is medium. Granted this is simply a marketing ploy, but within the larger cultural framework, it's certainly a super-sized portion of "food for thought".
"There are those who would say that the uneasiness Canadians have with titles reflects something approaching hostility toward anyone who rises too far above the crowd. The great Canadian novelist Robertson Davies used to tell of the response at a reception in British Columbia when the news came that Lester Pearson, later the Prime Minister of Canada, had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. 'Well!' somebody said. 'Who does he think he is!'"
Tall Poppy Syndrome is hardly unique to Canada. "Taking the piss" out of a successful person is a common practice in New Zealand and Australia, and I've heard my friend Peter Thompson from Northern Ireland use the phrase more than once.
What I don't understand is why Tall Poppy Syndrome is not endemic to the United States, a country that eschews honorifics like "Sir" and frowns on the notion of royalty. Americans are famous for excusing the flaws of successful creeps like Donald Trump, and elevating celebrities--even Hillary Duff-- to an almost godlike status. Americans seem to want nothing more than to rise above the crowd, to the point where "keeping up with the Joneses" is a national obsession.
Some have fretted that the syndrome might lead to societally enforced mediocrity. High acheiving school children,they argue, might reign themselves in to win the favour of their peers; a brown coffee mug from a donut chain could become a country's most recognizable corporate symbol abroad;loudmouth hockey commentators like Don Cherry might be listed amongst the nation's proudest assets.
In the great TSP-free zone south of the border, however, American hero-worhip and desire for status might lead to unhealthy extremes: Everything has to be bigger, better, flashier, etc. Good enough is never good enough. A good example of this is as close as your choice in coffee. In Starbuck's, the iconic American coffeeshop you can no longer order a "small coffee". The smallest size available is medium. Granted this is simply a marketing ploy, but within the larger cultural framework, it's certainly a super-sized portion of "food for thought".
