Tall Poppy Syndrome: Difference between revisions

A pejorative term used in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand to describe a leveling social attitude seen as jealous and spiteful towards people of real accomplishments. Someone is said to be suffering from tall poppy syndrome when his or her academic, artistic, economic, scientific, social, or political prominence attracts resentment by those who lack such prominence, being perceived as presumptuous, attention seeking, or without merit. Alternately, it is seen as a societal trait in which people of genuine merit are criticized or resented because the attention given them elevates them above their peers. Tall poppies could once expect to be cut down.

 

 

This term is occasionally used as a synonym for "egalitarianism" (of any kind) but to do so is very misleading. Egalitarianism is concerned with improving the lot of the lowest levels, "raising the [[Lowest Common Denominator]]." For example, political philosopher John Rawls argued that inequality of income under an economic system is not bad as long as the ''minimal'' outcome saw improvement under the system (i.e. "maximize the minimum"). '''Tall Poppy Syndrome''' is the ''inverse''; instead of attempting to raise the lowest level, it lowers the ''highest'' level. The aim is not to assist the less-good (by any standard) to become better, but to destroy the better (by any standard) in order to make the worse-off feel less bad.

 

 

Needless to say, countries that have '''Tall Poppy Syndrome''' are very likely to have many citizens within them that ''do not'' approve of '''Tall Poppy Syndrome'''.

The term comes from a story about Tarquin the Proud, last king of ancient Rome. Tarquin was asked what to do with the leading men of an enemy city his soldiers had captured. He sliced the heads off the tallest poppies in his garden and so the enemy leaders were put to death by beheading.

 

 

 

== Comedy ==

* There's a joke where a dead Pole ([[Viewers are Morons|as in, a dude from Poland]]) is escorted past the cauldrons that hold members of various nationalities, each one with a devil standing guard to push back in the ones trying to get out. At the cauldron for Poles, there are no devils, [[Don't Explain the Joke|because of the given trope]]. Sometimes it's also about other people than the Poles, and sometimes it's set in a concentration camp, or a GULAG, instead of hell (with the prisoners having to work in clay pits or similar).

== [[Fan Works]] ==

* Sadly, it's a very common attitude amongst both readers and creators within fandoms of nearly all types. [[Big Name Fan]]s and [[Promoted Fanboy|Promoted Fans]] tend to become polarizing figures and people that go on to become published creators themselves are often looked upon with scorn beyond any perceived injustices they may have committed. This is also often the underlying impetus behind the endless flame wars over what constitutes "canon" and the extensive culture of [[Original Character]] shaming/bullying (which goes so far beyond what anyone might call "[[Mary Sue]]", it scares off quite a few would-be writers). A lot of this really does come down to "don't try and be anything more than the rest of us".

 

== [[Film]] ==

== [[Literature]] ==

* Repeatedly touched on in ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'', and ''[[Objectivism]]'' as [[Obviously Evil]].

* This is a major factor in most of the ''[[Sharpe]]'' stories—the Establishment is deeply offended that a common soldier born to poverty could have become an officer. Then even more offended when he goes around being better at it than them. Similarly, a lot of the common soldiers resent being given orders by a "jumped-up Sergeant". To the point where they attempt to frag him at <s>one</s> <s>two</s> <s>many</s> lots of points.

* [[Deconstructed Trope|Deconstructed]] in ''[[Harrison Bergeron]]'' by [[Kurt Vonnegut]], where everyone is literally handicapped to the lowest common denominator. Athletic people must wear heavy chains to make them slow and clumsy. Smart people wear earphones that randomly play loud noises to disrupt their thinking patterns. And beautiful people must wear masks.

* Touched on in ''Lies My Teacher Told Me'', I.E. any Native American who ''isn't'' living on the reservation/running a casino/wearing [[Braids, Beads, and Buckskins]] isn't a [[Magical Native American|"real" Native American]].

* In ''[[The Screwtape Letters|Screwtape Proposes a Toast]]'', Screwtape expounds upon this phenomenon in Britain, drawing attention to the fact that, in the original story that gave the phenomenon its name, it was a ''dictator'' cutting off heads to insure that his ''subjects'' were all equal. Of course, [[Villain Protagonist|Screwtape being a demon]], he thinks this tyranny of the masses is one of the best things to happen to Britain in decades.

* The Scandinavian term ''Janteloven'' ("the Jante law" or "the law of Jante") comes from the 1933 novel ''A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks'' by Danish-Norwegian author Aksel Sandemose. In this book, the first-person narrator comes from a small town called Jante in Denmark, where the working-class inhabitants follow the unwritten Jante law, which consists of rules that basically boil down to "Don't think you're anything special":

{{quote|1: Don't think you're anything special.

* Straight from the Gospels, and thus [[Older Than Feudalism]]: ''No man is prophet in his own land'' (on how Jesus Himself is panned in his own home village, Nazareth, when he tries to deliver His message). This trope is pretty much [[Word of God]], for some.

* In ''[[Matched]]'', Ky does this on purpose so, as an Aberration, he won't be selected to fight in the war.

* In ''[[Huckleberry Finn]],'' Huck's father (a slovenly, abusive, and neglectful drunkard) is absolutely enraged by the fact that Huck is getting an education and a chance at a decent shot in life, because he thinks that now Huck is going to think he's above his dad.

 

== [[Live-Action TV]] ==

* One episode of ''[[Cold Case]]'' involved the death of a black man who had [[Pass Fail|managed to pass himself off as white]] in the 1950's. {{spoiler|The murderer was motivated by this, accusing him of 'betraying his people'.}}

* ''[[Survivor]]'' and just about every other reality show based on [[Voted Off the Island]]. If someone makes too good of a showing, the other contestants deem him/her a threat and vote them out.

 

== [[Music]] ==

* Among the criticisms leveled at [[My Chemical Romance]]'s [[The Black Parade]] was that MCR was attempting to rise above their station with this album, at it was apparently ''TOO GOOD''.

{{quote|''People too, me and you

Can also be like lobsters in buckets

Please don't be a lobster, friends are best'' }}

* [[Delta Goodrem]] got this after the success of her first album.

 

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

* Calvin lampshades this in ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' when he's proud of getting a "C". He finds life easier the lower he keeps below peoples' expectations.

* In ''[[Zits]]'', Jeremy is initially excited to get an "A" on a test...then suddenly has a vision of his parents saying they're proud of him and from now on, will expect him to bring home As on ''every'' test. Cut to the next panel where he says he thinks he blew it.

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* One of the major themes of ''[[The Incredibles]]'' revolves around this idea, where the superheroes are forced to give up "hero work". Originally this was because of a series of lawsuits and increasing public outrage and mistrust of supers in general; years later, this means Dash isn't allowed to go out in sports because he'd be too good, and Syndrome wants to give the world super-powers so that "when everyone is special, no one will be". On the surface, and at its core, with a thick layer of aspiring despot in between, Syndrome's philosophy is actually the antithesis of ([[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement|but potentially as harmful]]<ref>''artificially'' raising people over the lower bar, like the [[Truth in Television|teachers who refuse to give Fs to failing students]]</ref> counterpart to) this trope - Raising everyone else so the people who naturally excel are average. Of course, Syndrome doesn't wish to ''artificially'' raise anyone, and if he wasn't doing it for megalomania and revenge, giving out jetpacks to people would be ''awesome''.

* ''[[The Legend of Korra]]'' uses this as a theme. Amon, leader of the Equalists, is convinced that benders are terrible and there's no use for them in the world. So he uses a power he has to {{spoiler|take bending power away permanently}}, and thus make them "equal" to everyone else.

 

** The Japanese variation is that ''every'' child should be a Tall Poppy, with the implied paradox that if everyone is a TP, then no one is, ie, no one person stands out.

* Spain is a country that runs on TPS. This trope perfectly describes the average Spaniard's reaction to anyone who excels or succeeds at anything (except for sports). Possible exception would be in the region of Catalunya, where the inhabitants are considered overachievers by all other Spanish regions.

** Small town Scandinavia, too (except for sports). Let's just say that Sandemose didn't make the Jante Law out of whole cloth.

* This attitude is prevalent in the African-American community, particularly the lower class. Get straight A's in school and do extra-curriculars that aren't sports? You're a nerd! Speak proper English, wear non-ghetto clothing, and listen to a variety of music? You're acting white! Finish college and work a respectable job? You think you're better than everybody!<ref>Regardless of racial identity, this claim is most commonly used by people who are worried one actually ''is'' better.</ref> "Oreo" (black on the outside, white on the inside) was a popular slur in decades past, and is still used sometimes. Rapper 50 Cent, who has made his living off of his tough-guy, from-the-streets, shot-nine-times image, [http://www.tmz.com/2006/11/30/oprah-s-an-oreo-says-rapper/#.TrvNLfEjh0s infamously called Oprah Winfrey an "Oreo"]. One could argue that the attitude was instilled by centuries of racial oppression, but American race politics are a heated debate by themselves.

* Very common in office workplaces. Working harder than your coworkers will inevitably earn you their scorn because employers are then more likely to raise quality or quantity standards. As a result, over-achieving compared to your colleagues is deemed anti-social behaviour due to a mixture of [[Ambition Is Evil]], [[There Are No Good Executives]] and this trope. [[Sarcasm Mode|The only ''honest'' way of working is apparently to try and do as little work over as long a period as possible, without going so far overboard that your employers feel comfortable firing you.]]

* A well-known [[Soviet Union]]-era joke. A man is visited by a genie, who offers to grant him a wish. The man responds that his neighbor has a cow, but he himself has no cow. The genie asks if the man wants a cow of his own too. The man says no, that he wants his neighbor's cow to die.

* Many high schoolers can attest to being witness to this mentality. Kids who study, read, and make good grades are "nerds" and get picked on.

** Sometimes this works backwords. "Different" kids are put down as early as ''elementary school'', but by late high school everyone, including the original bullies, are tired of that behavior and move on.

* Crabs in a pot will do this; they could all escape easily, but instead they're forever pulling each other down so that none of them escapes. Similar behavior in humans is called "crab mentality," which could be seen as a variation of this trope. In fact, [[The Other Wiki]]'s "Crab Mentality" [[wikipedia:Crab mentality|page]] links to their "Tall Poppy Syndrome" page.

* [[Mensa]] gets this sort of judgement from folks at times. Because intelligence is considered to be synonymous with "better" people often think of it as an assembly of intellectuals and know-it-alls rather than the social group it actually is.

* Oh heck, it's safe to say that this trope is just ''very'' [[Truth in Television]] here.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Index Syndrome]]

[[Category:Useful Notes/Australia]]

[[Category:Reality TV Tropes]]

[[Category:Stock Aesops]]