I am in the process of writing an article about how much I like Australian culture, but there is one thing about it that I absolutely hate, and that I think we can do away with - tall poppy syndrome. That is, we seem to have an absolutely cruel and fascitoid dislike of anyone blowing their horn.
Let me give you an example. I was on youtube recently watching Andy Roddick give a press conference (one of the funniest in history) after he was destroyed by Roger Federer in the semi-finals of the 2007 Australian Open. The first question he recieves, the very first of the entire interview, which happens to be from an Australian journalist, is as follows:
"Before the match you said that you felt that the gap between yourself and Roger was closing, do you think you'll keep that to yourself next time?"
What kind of fucking question is that? Roddick was obviously upset by it as well, but he's got media training so he just said "No, because its the truth. until tonight I thought the gap was closing, if I didnt think so then why'd would I flog myself on the training court everyday?"
If it was me in that situation I would have added: "what do you want me to say
dickhead: 'the gap is just getting bigger and bigger. Roger is the greatest player of all time. I have no possible chance of winning, in fact, I'm only going out onto court because the fans expect me to?'"
The above example is a perfect illustration of Australian cultures complete lack of tolerance for anyone expressing any degree of confidence in themselves. What we want is exceptionally high calibre people saying absolutely nothing, or better yet, deprecating themselves. We seem to have a particular preferece for people who, despite being top of their field, pretend that they are in fact, just like everyone else.
There was a little satirical book I read once called "how to be British". One of its key recommendations was to always act like you were a useless git, even if you happened to be harding working, highly educated and extremely talented. For example, if your friend inquires about how you got your latest high paying executive position, you need to say something like the following:
"Oh I really don't know, I guess I must have just gotten lucky. There were thousands of far more qualified people in the running. Maybe they got the resume's mixed up or something."
Now frankly this is just sick. If you're good at something you should be able to take pride in it. If you're exceptional you should be allowed to feel exceptional. If you win or achieve something, you should be allowed to celebrate it - openly, unashamedly, like a rock star. Perhaps like a rock star is a bit too far, but I think it is absolutely fundamental to good psychological health that you take pride in your achievements, and recognise them as difficult accomplishment that deserve recognition and celebration.
Obviously things have limits in the other direction. If someone has no ability and they are running their mouth they should be put in their place poste-haste. Boasting is a horrendous practice when taken to excess and devoid of humor. For example, in 2009 there was a coach at the tennis club I worked at who spent at least 50% of any conversation time you had with him telling you how good he was. Meanwhile his tennis philosophy had more holes in it than a rabbit warren. On social fridays, when all the coaches got together to play some laidback doubles, this bloke used to offer suggestions to the other coaches from across the net.
One day the head coach and I were off for a run on Bondi after a hard day's work, and this coach asked us how far we would run: about five laps. At this point, he thought it neccessary to inform us that he had run the marathon in four hours. I'd had enough. "I bet I can flog you over 10 laps on the sand any day you want." He accepted the challenge. Now at this point I was training ten hours a day for tennis, so by the time the work day finished I was pretty much buggered. My laps at bondi used to be for cool down, not cardio. I still whupped him, nearly lapped him in fact. But did that shut him up? Not a chance. later that day when I was doing a few squats, he came over to tell me I was soft because I wasn't holding my arms out straight.
In cases like this I encourage the application of the gardener's shears to a tall poppy, but when those same shears are pulled out on just about every occasion, what you end up with is a culture devoid of ambition. A culture of mediocrity, where nobody wants to do anything outstanding on the off-chance that they might offend their peer's pride and be the victim of vicious reprisals.
I'm fairly convinced that tall poppy syndrome is at least partially responsible for the absence of any decent reading material in Australia - everyone has performance anxiety. The only way to avoid to reprisals without writing something utterly mundane is to produce something really exceptional that can't be argued with. Such things are of course, hard to come up with, and so people prefer to remain silent. As a result, we are frequently left with sub-par material in the public domain. Alternatively, we get a lot of garbage written by wankers who all prop each other up, paying little attention to wider public sentiment.
One of the things I hate the most about tall poppy syndrome is that it occasionally reaches the point where Australian's actually begin to glorify things that are completely average. Anybody who can put a close up through a photoshop filter gets described as "so talented". Anyone who can hit a g has a "great voice" and somebody who can draw is an artistic "genius".
But woah, let me check myself. Tall poppy syndrome has positive aspects too. Australia is all about 'having a go', which means that anyone can get involved and people generally feel welcome. I think this has many positive benefits for the health of our society, not only because people enjoy a wide range of hobbies, but also because people manifest more self esteem when their efforts are congratulated and valued. I think the slogan "do your best" is one of the best I've ever come across. So is the idea that it is the effort that counts.
That said, I think we've strayed from the balance point. People can be encouraged to participate and their effort respected and appreciated without our society as a whole losing its sense of proportion. Calling the soloist from the college production a great singer devalues the work of those people in the music school who slog it out 2-4 hours a day and refrain from vocal chord damaging ice cream to make it as a singer. Calling a decent Australian music school grad a genius is an offence to real geniuses like Mozart. Terms like 'genius' really need to be reserved for the highest of the high, because otherwise we are cheapening these things, and actively participating in levelling.
Please don't misunderstand me. I am not suggesting that the pursuit of highly specialised perfection is the bees knees. I don't even think it is healthy, and I am very fond of Australia's ability to make everyone feel special, valuable and happy. All I am saying is that tall poppy syndrome has become a cult of mediocrity that is crushing any drive for achievement beneath its boot. It is no coincidence that Australia suffers severly from the 'brain drain', where highly education people move overseas shortly after finishing university, or that 'our' only noble prize winner has been living and working in the USA for more than 20 years.
Boasters should be brought into line, but people with ability who invest a great deal of effort into living up to their potential need to be given encouragement whenever possible, and allowed to bask in their achievements, at least for a little while. Recognising the unique accomplishments of the ultra talented and/or hardworking in no way affects our ability to foster the self-esteem of the more average individual, provided that we maintain effort as the key item of merit.
Expecting people who grind till they drop to keep it all inside when they win or achieve is disgusting, cruel and spiteful. I'd expect nothing less from that pack of conformist, envious, cliche peddling, wannabes - sports journalists - but as a society, I think we can be a bit more sophisticated.
Let me give you an example. I was on youtube recently watching Andy Roddick give a press conference (one of the funniest in history) after he was destroyed by Roger Federer in the semi-finals of the 2007 Australian Open. The first question he recieves, the very first of the entire interview, which happens to be from an Australian journalist, is as follows:
"Before the match you said that you felt that the gap between yourself and Roger was closing, do you think you'll keep that to yourself next time?"
What kind of fucking question is that? Roddick was obviously upset by it as well, but he's got media training so he just said "No, because its the truth. until tonight I thought the gap was closing, if I didnt think so then why'd would I flog myself on the training court everyday?"
If it was me in that situation I would have added: "what do you want me to say
dickhead: 'the gap is just getting bigger and bigger. Roger is the greatest player of all time. I have no possible chance of winning, in fact, I'm only going out onto court because the fans expect me to?'"
The above example is a perfect illustration of Australian cultures complete lack of tolerance for anyone expressing any degree of confidence in themselves. What we want is exceptionally high calibre people saying absolutely nothing, or better yet, deprecating themselves. We seem to have a particular preferece for people who, despite being top of their field, pretend that they are in fact, just like everyone else.
There was a little satirical book I read once called "how to be British". One of its key recommendations was to always act like you were a useless git, even if you happened to be harding working, highly educated and extremely talented. For example, if your friend inquires about how you got your latest high paying executive position, you need to say something like the following:
"Oh I really don't know, I guess I must have just gotten lucky. There were thousands of far more qualified people in the running. Maybe they got the resume's mixed up or something."
Now frankly this is just sick. If you're good at something you should be able to take pride in it. If you're exceptional you should be allowed to feel exceptional. If you win or achieve something, you should be allowed to celebrate it - openly, unashamedly, like a rock star. Perhaps like a rock star is a bit too far, but I think it is absolutely fundamental to good psychological health that you take pride in your achievements, and recognise them as difficult accomplishment that deserve recognition and celebration.
Obviously things have limits in the other direction. If someone has no ability and they are running their mouth they should be put in their place poste-haste. Boasting is a horrendous practice when taken to excess and devoid of humor. For example, in 2009 there was a coach at the tennis club I worked at who spent at least 50% of any conversation time you had with him telling you how good he was. Meanwhile his tennis philosophy had more holes in it than a rabbit warren. On social fridays, when all the coaches got together to play some laidback doubles, this bloke used to offer suggestions to the other coaches from across the net.
One day the head coach and I were off for a run on Bondi after a hard day's work, and this coach asked us how far we would run: about five laps. At this point, he thought it neccessary to inform us that he had run the marathon in four hours. I'd had enough. "I bet I can flog you over 10 laps on the sand any day you want." He accepted the challenge. Now at this point I was training ten hours a day for tennis, so by the time the work day finished I was pretty much buggered. My laps at bondi used to be for cool down, not cardio. I still whupped him, nearly lapped him in fact. But did that shut him up? Not a chance. later that day when I was doing a few squats, he came over to tell me I was soft because I wasn't holding my arms out straight.
In cases like this I encourage the application of the gardener's shears to a tall poppy, but when those same shears are pulled out on just about every occasion, what you end up with is a culture devoid of ambition. A culture of mediocrity, where nobody wants to do anything outstanding on the off-chance that they might offend their peer's pride and be the victim of vicious reprisals.
I'm fairly convinced that tall poppy syndrome is at least partially responsible for the absence of any decent reading material in Australia - everyone has performance anxiety. The only way to avoid to reprisals without writing something utterly mundane is to produce something really exceptional that can't be argued with. Such things are of course, hard to come up with, and so people prefer to remain silent. As a result, we are frequently left with sub-par material in the public domain. Alternatively, we get a lot of garbage written by wankers who all prop each other up, paying little attention to wider public sentiment.
One of the things I hate the most about tall poppy syndrome is that it occasionally reaches the point where Australian's actually begin to glorify things that are completely average. Anybody who can put a close up through a photoshop filter gets described as "so talented". Anyone who can hit a g has a "great voice" and somebody who can draw is an artistic "genius".
But woah, let me check myself. Tall poppy syndrome has positive aspects too. Australia is all about 'having a go', which means that anyone can get involved and people generally feel welcome. I think this has many positive benefits for the health of our society, not only because people enjoy a wide range of hobbies, but also because people manifest more self esteem when their efforts are congratulated and valued. I think the slogan "do your best" is one of the best I've ever come across. So is the idea that it is the effort that counts.
That said, I think we've strayed from the balance point. People can be encouraged to participate and their effort respected and appreciated without our society as a whole losing its sense of proportion. Calling the soloist from the college production a great singer devalues the work of those people in the music school who slog it out 2-4 hours a day and refrain from vocal chord damaging ice cream to make it as a singer. Calling a decent Australian music school grad a genius is an offence to real geniuses like Mozart. Terms like 'genius' really need to be reserved for the highest of the high, because otherwise we are cheapening these things, and actively participating in levelling.
Please don't misunderstand me. I am not suggesting that the pursuit of highly specialised perfection is the bees knees. I don't even think it is healthy, and I am very fond of Australia's ability to make everyone feel special, valuable and happy. All I am saying is that tall poppy syndrome has become a cult of mediocrity that is crushing any drive for achievement beneath its boot. It is no coincidence that Australia suffers severly from the 'brain drain', where highly education people move overseas shortly after finishing university, or that 'our' only noble prize winner has been living and working in the USA for more than 20 years.
Boasters should be brought into line, but people with ability who invest a great deal of effort into living up to their potential need to be given encouragement whenever possible, and allowed to bask in their achievements, at least for a little while. Recognising the unique accomplishments of the ultra talented and/or hardworking in no way affects our ability to foster the self-esteem of the more average individual, provided that we maintain effort as the key item of merit.
Expecting people who grind till they drop to keep it all inside when they win or achieve is disgusting, cruel and spiteful. I'd expect nothing less from that pack of conformist, envious, cliche peddling, wannabes - sports journalists - but as a society, I think we can be a bit more sophisticated.
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