Tall poppy syndrome is a term which originated in Australia and New Zealand in the 1980s that refers to people with notable public success, who excessively promote their own achievements and opinions. [1] [2] Intense scrutiny and criticism of such a person is termed as "cutting down the tall poppy". [3]
The phrase "tall poppies" originates from Livy's account [4] of the tyrannical Roman king Lucius Tarquinius Superbus. He is said to have received a messenger from his son Sextus Tarquinius asking what he should do next in Gabii, since he had become all-powerful there. Rather than answering the messenger verbally, Tarquin went into his garden, took a stick and swept it across his garden, thus cutting off the heads of the tallest poppies that were growing there. The messenger returned to Gabii and told Sextus what he had seen. Sextus realised that his father wished him to put to death all of the most eminent people of Gabii, which he then did. [4]
Earlier stories with the same theme are found in Aristotle's Politics [5] (in which Periander, the tyrant of Corinth, makes the gesture to a herald of Thrasybulus, tyrant of Miletus) and in Herodotus' Histories [6] (in which Thrasybulus makes the gesture to Periander's herald). However, these Greek stories involve fields of grain; Livy's Roman tale is the first to feature poppies.
In Australia and New Zealand, "cutting down the tall poppy" is sometimes used by business entrepreneurs to describe those who deliberately criticise other people for their success and achievements. [1] [7] [8] It has been described as being the by-product of the Australian and New Zealand cultural value of egalitarianism. [1] [9]
In Japan, a similar common expression is "the nail that sticks up gets hammered down" (出る杭は打たれる). [10] [11] [12] In the Netherlands, this expression is "don't put your head above ground level" (boven het maaiveld uitsteken), with the cultural phenomenon being named maaiveldcultuur .[ citation needed ]
In Chile, this expression is known as chaquetear ('pull the jacket'). [13] In Scandinavia, this expression is known as the Law of Jante. The Law of Jante originates from a 1933 novel by Aksel Sandemose. It contains rules and stipulations such as "you're not to think you are anything special" and "perhaps you don't think we know a few things about you?". [14] [15]
In Canada, the term "tall poppy syndrome" is used in particular to refer to successful women being criticised for their success. [16] [17] [18] [19]
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus was the legendary seventh and final king of Rome, reigning 25 years until the popular uprising that led to the establishment of the Roman Republic. He is commonly known as Tarquin the Proud, from his cognomen Superbus.
The Roman Kingdom, also referred to as the Roman monarchy or the regal period of ancient Rome, was the earliest period of Roman history when the city and its territory were ruled by kings. According to tradition, the Roman Kingdom began with the city's founding c. 753 BC, with settlements around the Palatine Hill along the river Tiber in central Italy, and ended with the overthrow of the kings and the establishment of the Republic c. 509 BC.
The Law of Jante is a code of conduct originating in fiction and now used colloquially to denote a social attitude of disapproval towards expressions of individuality and personal success. Coined by the Danish-Norwegian author Aksel Sandemose, it has also come to represent the egalitarian nature of Scandinavian countries.
In biochemistry, medicine, and related sciences, inositol generally refers to myo-inositol, the most important stereoisomer of the chemical compound cyclohexane-1,2,3,4,5,6-hexol. Its formula is C6H12O6; the molecule has a ring of six carbon atoms, each with an hydrogen atom and a hydroxyl group (–OH). In myo-inositol, two of the hydroxyls, neither adjacent not opposite, lie above the respective hydrogens relative to the mean plane of the ring.
The Battle of the Allia was fought c. 387 BC between the Senones – a Gallic tribe led by Brennus, who had invaded Northern Italy – and the Roman Republic.
The New Zealand men's national basketball team represents New Zealand in international basketball competitions. The team is governed by Basketball New Zealand. The team's official nickname is the Tall Blacks.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease is an American aphorism or metaphor attesting that matters which draw attention to themselves are more likely to be addressed than those which do not. The term makes no necessary correlation between the volume of a complaint and its stridency with its merit.
In the fields of cultural studies and social anthropology, cultural cringe is an expression used to refer to an internalized inferiority complex where people dismiss their own culture as inferior (cringe-inducing) when compared to the cultures of other countries. In anthropology, cultural cringe is related to the concept of the colonial mentality, and usually is manifested in the anti-intellectualism deployed against intellectuals, scientists, and artists native to a colonized country or a former colony. Moreover, at the personal level, cultural cringe also is manifested as cultural alienation.
Rugby league in Australia has been one of Australia's most popular sports since it started being played there in 1908. It is the dominant winter football code in the states or territories of New South Wales and Queensland. In 2022, it was the most watched sport on Australian television with an aggregate audience of 137.3 million viewers. The premier club competition is the National Rugby League (NRL), which features teams from four states/territories: ten teams from New South Wales; four teams from Queensland; and one team each from Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory. The premier representative competition is the annual Rugby league State of Origin featuring two sides, the New South Wales Blues and the Queensland Maroons is often referred to as "Australian sport's greatest rivalry", it is one of Australia's premier sporting events, attracting huge interest and television audiences.
Gabii was an ancient city of Latium, located 18 km (11 mi) due east of Rome along the Via Praenestina, which was in early times known as the Via Gabina. It was on the south-eastern perimeter of an extinct volcanic crater lake, approximately circular in shape, named the Lacus Gabinus, and then during later times called the Lago di Castiglione, "lake of the fortification", after Castiglione, a mediaeval tower erected on the site of the ancient acropolis, or arx, of Gabii. A necropolis is adjacent on that side of the lake. At present, the former lake is entirely agricultural land. The ruins of the ancient city project from the fields next to the cliffs overlooking it, on both sides of the via. A municipium in Roman times, Gabii is currently located in the frazione of Osteria dell'Osa 10 km (6.2 mi) from the comune of Monte Compatri, of which it is a part, in the Province of Rome, Region of Lazio. The site is under new seasonal archaeological excavation.
A remembrance poppy is an artificial flower worn in some countries to commemorate their military personnel who died in war. Remembrance poppies are produced by veterans' associations, which exchange the poppies for charitable donations used to give financial, social and emotional support to members and veterans of the armed forces.
Thrasybulus was the tyrant of Miletus in the 7th century BC. Under his rule, Miletus fought a lengthy war against Lydia. This war ended without a decisive victor. Following the war, Miletus and Lydia concluded an alliance.
Negative selection is a political process that occurs especially in rigid hierarchies, most notably dictatorships, but also to lesser degrees in such settings as corporations or electoral politics.
The leges regiae were early Roman laws which classical historians such as Plutarch thought had been introduced by the semilegendary kings of Rome.
Tall Timbers is a 1937 action melodrama set in the timber industry directed by Ken G. Hall and starring Frank Leighton and Shirley Ann Richards.
Australia 108 is a residential supertall skyscraper in the Southbank precinct of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Having officially topped out in June 2020, it became the tallest building in Australia by roof height, surpassing the Eureka Tower, and the second-tallest building in Australia by full height, surpassed by Q1 Tower.
The Roman–Sabine wars were a series of wars during the early expansion of ancient Rome in central Italy against their northern neighbours, the Sabines. It is commonly accepted that the events pre-dating the Roman Republic in 509 BC are semi-legendary in nature.
Billy James Stanlake is an Australian cricketer. He is a fast bowler who represented Australia in the 2014 Under-19 Cricket World Cup and played One Day International and Twenty20 International cricket for the full national side. He plays domestic cricket for the Tasmania cricket team and the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League. Stanlake is the tallest person to ever represent Australia in international cricket, standing at 204 cm.
Lucretia is a painting by the Italian baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi. It depicts Lucretia, the wife of Roman consul and general Collatinus, at the moment of her suicide. The decision to take her own life was made after she was blackmailed and raped by Sextus Tarquinius, a fellow soldier of Collatinus. It is one of a number of paintings of Gentileschi that focus on virtuous women ill-treated by men.
Jemma Louise Geoghegan is a Scottish-born evolutionary virologist, based at the University of Otago, New Zealand, who specialises in researching emerging infectious diseases and the use of metagenomics to trace the evolution of viruses. As a leader in several government-funded research projects, Geoghegan became the public face of genomic sequencing during New Zealand's response to COVID-19. Her research has contributed to the discussion about the likely cause of COVID-19 and the challenges around predicting pandemics. She was a recipient of the Young Tall Poppy Award in 2017, a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship in 2020, and the 2021 Prime Minister's Emerging Scientist Prize.
The story is that Periander made no reply to the herald sent to ask his advice, but levelled the corn-field by plucking off the ears that stood out above the rest; and consequently, although the herald did not know the reason for what was going on, when he carried back news of what had occurred, Thrasybulus understood that he was to destroy the outstanding citizens.
Thrasybulus led the man who had come from Periander outside the town, and entered into a sown field. As he walked through the corn, continually asking why the messenger had come to him from Corinth, he kept cutting off all the tallest ears of wheat which he could see, and throwing them away, until he had destroyed the best and richest part of the crop. Then, after passing through the place and speaking no word of counsel, he sent the herald away.
