This piece talks about quite a few things. The first of these is the new ‘entitlement’/instant gratification culture that we find ourselves living in, in the Western World, where everyone gleefully strives for the lowest common denominator. As part of this, many people have never grown out of their infantile emotions of simply screaming and crying loud and long enough that they eventually ‘win’.

Of course, that sort of behaviour and mindset has an ugly stepsister, who becomes much more evident as folks become so-called ‘adults’. That ugly stepsister is that those of us, who decide to stay trapped in these destructive mindsets will naturally attack and destroy anyone, who dares to try and step outside them, and better themselves. Far worse still is when the successful one is part of a visible minority culture, and will often get the double-whammy of being despised for their success, and also called a ‘traitor to their culture’ for their efforts, such as African Americans, who become successful, and wind up being called an ‘Oreo’ by their former friends.

I often think about Morrissey’s song: ‘We hate it when our friends become successful’, as I have always thought there was a great deal of uncomfortable truth to it.

This piece also incorporates a few further references, the first of which is the old adage: ‘In the Country of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is King’, and which H. G. Wells so devastatingly proved false in his 1904 short story: ‘The Country of the Blind’.

The second reference is to what is called ‘crab mentality’, which itself is based on the anecdote that in a bucket filled with crabs, every time one tries to climb out, it will be pulled back down by the others in the bucket. This mentality is used to refer to the phenomenon in some poor and/or minority communities that someone in that community, who becomes successful is not only a ‘traitor’ to that community, but that somehow, their socioeconomic advancement is undermining the success of everyone else.

The third (and similar) reference is to a phenomenon known as the ‘Tall Poppy Syndrome’, which takes its name from Herodotus’ The Histories (Book 5, 92f), Aristotle’s Politics (1284a), and Livy’s History of Rome Book I.

In all three references, the adage refers to the symbolic act of cutting off the heads of the tallest poppies in a garden, which is used as a metaphor for knocking down people, who strive to rise above the masses.

Sociologists such as Max Weber have taken this further, saying that societal prestige is a zero-sum game, and hence, the ‘tall poppies’ in society gain their prestige at the expense of the more common folks (i.e. the ‘shorter’ poppies).

Personally, I think that that idea is a total crock of shit, and this piece probably makes that viewpoint clear.