I once asked about the Tall Poppy Syndrom as a question in one of my quizzes but this came to my mind when I read this post and its comments on Chinmayi's Blog.
The question that I had asked went something like this
This is a pejorative term used in Australia and New Zealand to describe what is seen as a levelling social attitude. Someone is said to be suffering from this when his or her assumption of a higher economic, social or political position attracts criticism, being perceived as presumptuous, attention seeking or without merit. The process can be linked with anti-intellectualism, especially with public criticism by the media or community leaders of particular academics or members of the intelligentsia.( I accept this was right out of wiki) but I came across this when I was reading Mark waugh's biography in college.
The thought of leaving anonymous hate comments on a public system like a blog somehow strikes very similar to a Tall Poppy Syndrome to me. People do not have ( in some cases , have) the pedigree to comment on other person's art or do not have the gumption to put their name in the comments. This is prevalent across the system.
Take the criketers of India for example. Sachin Tendulkar hitting a century in a test match is not good enough any more. The fact that he doesn't hit attacking century seems to be a grouse. Since when did a century in test cricket not matter. People who are struggling to score even 50's in club cricket have their right to criticise player's of much superior capability and that too on public forums like blogs. This is more like - if you are not able to achieve what the other person is acheiving , undermine the other person and bring him to your level kind of thing.
Are we becoming a group of whiners who like to bring down people who are trying to achieve something?
1 comment:
Guess we've resembled a lot with Englishmen here. Occasional spurts of brilliance, hype and big thud. It is a vicious circle of under-performance.
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