| TALL
POPPIES, STAMENS AND PISTILS
One of the most common clichés in Australia is that we suffer
from the Tall Poppy Syndrome.
We build people up and then we gleefully cut them down. I don’t
agree I think it is a myth.
The so-called Tall Poppies we supposedly reduce in size deserve
it. Shane Warne was one of the tallest tall poppies in our sporting
world. Jealous, envious Australians didn’t lop him off. He
did it to himself and then got banned from his sport for a year
on drug charges.
Other sporting stars have had self-inflicted reputation amputations
because of drink-driving, pub-brawling, whatever.
Can anybody seriously argue that Wayne Carey was a victim of the
Tall Poppy Syndrome? Although you could make a flower analogy: It
was his stamen and Kelly Stephens’ pistil that brought them
undone.
Tall Poppies are in the news today because of an article in the
(Melbourne) Herald Sun under the headline: “Looking for bad
in those who are good.
It was written by a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute in
California.
Robert W. Tracinski attacks critics of home-decorating guru Martha
Stewart who is facing charges of insider trading and if convicted
faces a possible jail term of up to thirty years.
Tracinski says: How has a home decorating expert with a wholesome
public persona come to be regarded as a major cultural villain?
His answer: Martha is hated because she is a Tall Poppy. And he
says:
“There’s a notorious saying in Australia – cutting
down the Tall Poppies. In other words, anyone who dares poke their
head above the crowd must be attacked, denigrated, and brought down
to the common level”.
In think that is rubbish. A perpetuated myth. If true, how can
you explain the hero worship of actors and singers and football
players and cricketers.
It is true that the higher you climb the further the fall. But,
from my experience most Tall Poppies who do topple are cut down
with self-inflicted wounds.
Either believing all their publicity or, more often, thinking they
live in an untouchable stratosphere. To paraphrase The Great Gatsby
they are no longer like normal people. They live by a different
set of rules or non-rules. And sometimes, like Icarus, they fly
to close to the Sun.
Wednesday, January 14, 2004
©Copyright
Derryn Hinch 2004
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