You cannot strengthen one by weakening another; and you can’t increase the height of a dwarf by cutting off giant’s legs.” Benjamin franklin
In January 1993, an unlabeled vial arrived at the white house. It was President Bill Clinton’s allergy medicine. The White House physician at the time Dr. Burton Lee a practitioner for 37 years, prominent scientist refused to administer the president the medicine until its content is being confirmed by the trusted authorities. On the following day Dr. Lee received an unexpected news to pack his belongings and leave the office. Despite his well-established reputation in the medical field and adherence to ethical practices, Dr. Lee found himself unfairly robbed from his position. Many were left to wonder if he had become a victim of the Tall Poppy Syndrome.
In this blog, we will discuss this psychological societal tendency.
What is Tall Poppy Syndrome?
Have you been tall popped before?! Congratulations!! Unlike, the average Joe’s, the tall poppy syndrome is a cultural phenomenon that affects only individuals who stand out from the pack due to their competencies, and core qualities. The origin of the word poppy dates back to the 17th-century. Frequently Australians were using it to describe the conspicuous individuals with an implication to cutting them down.
The concept has been used in different cultures with similar expressions for instance in Egypt is “plucking the feather”. In Japan, is “the nail that sticks up gets hammered down”. In the Netherlands, is “don’t put your head above ground level”
Why tall poppy syndrome prevails significantly in social or semi-social countries?
In a socially structured communities, the pursuit of maintaining an average status serves as an ideal method for tyrants to indoctrinate the masses effectively. These societies place a strong emphasis on conformity and modesty, discouraging individuals from standing out. Thus, the achievement of an individual is often viewed as a threat to the group, as it can create feelings of jealousy, insecurity, or even guilt among others who have not used their potential.
Why do successful people bother the majority?
Successful people’s accomplishments act as a spotlight shining down on the majority’s shortcomings. They might feel that the hardworking is a threat to their ego. This can cause a good portion of the common many to say things like “why can’t you be like us” or make fun of the standout. This is because they feel jealous of the successful ones and they might not have the same values as the standout.
What are the consequences of exposure to tall poppy syndrome?
Tall poppy syndrome is not a diagnosable condition. It is rather a social phenomenon that percolates through society. Repetitive exposure can lead to:
- Personal insecurity, as they can’t comfortably express themselves.
- Low self-esteem to share their achievements.
How to countereffect the tall poppy syndrome?
When noticing that you are being tall popped, first thing you might experience as a rookie is a feeling of anger, and angry mind is a narrow mind. Therefore, it is imperative to acknowledge that a challenge is coming your way to strengthen you not to humiliate you. It is not necessarily targeting you as a human being, but it is towards the success you have achieved that irritates the subject. However, it is your responsibility to be very perspicuous about such behavior. So, it important to train yourself to act calmly as possible. One of the great psychological techniques to help neutralize this behavior is a technique called Verbal Aikido.
Aikido is a Japanese martial art created during the 1920s by Morihei Ueshiba. It is translated as the path of unifying energy.
As the old saying goes, “it’s better to be the warrior in the garden than the gardener in the war.” The primary goal in exercising aikido is to adopt the warrior mentality through overcoming oneself instead of responding to cutting down through violence or coping through caving in.
The warrior has confidence that can control himself and can also redirect the opponent’s attack if the situation dictates that and that in itself gives power to the practitioner in knowing that he’s in control.
Verbal aikido is a powerful psychological technique that emphasizes the importance of self-control. It teaches individuals to become capable and dangerous while also being able to manage their emotions and responses. To key tenant of this technique is relying on controlling one’s own energy and allowing the opponent to use their negative energy against them. Like water, the individual must adapt to the situation and redirect the attacker’s strength to harmlessly neutralize the threat. By mastering this principle, one can become more confident, self-assured, and effective in handling confrontational situations.
A very typical situation of tall poppy syndrome that takes place in every high school around the world can be exemplified in the following scenario:
We have Jim who started working out and was the youngest amongst his peers to win his first collegiate show. And we have the rest of the classmates, who never took that route. Here’s a snippet of a conversation between Jim and his classmates:
Classmate: I heard there were only few competitors on your show, looks like you did not have a tough show?
Jim: I had very respectable competitors, but my goal was to beat my old me.
Classmate: you probably did not have to suffer a lot because of your genetics?
Jim: I did not pay much attention to whether I am suffering or not. I was only focusing on what needs to be done.
Classmate: you are so philosophical, life is too short to diet to spend it in the gym or not pigging out, why you are doing all of that work?
Rings a bell already?!
Moral of the story is, life will throw curve balls at you; this time is from your classmates, who were telling you, your achievement is nothing but luck.
This is a typical dialogue between the victim of the tall poppy and the perpetrator. As you can see in the above example, the classmates didn’t want to recognize the achievement of Jim. And kept on throwing shots at Jim. That could have an impact on Jim’s esteem, isn’t it?! The higher your perspicacity about the attack, the better you become at disarming the attack.
Some people are like those classmates, your success reminds them of their shortcomings. When we operate in a reactive mode, we become manipulated, depressed, and lose our inner peace.
To avoid being in a reactive state when we are faced with a cut down situation we need to train and develop our emotional resiliency to register there is an attack, and we need to stand guard at our minds so that nothing can affect our well-being. Verbal aikido promotes the idea of calm mind is a resilient mind. A narrow mind is easily manipulated and used. Verbal aikido teaches us to remain collected during a cut down. To do this we must apply the three step process:
Figure 1: Dichotomy between reactive versus proactive during a cut down attack
The words of Rene Descartes are very helpful to remember during any form of social attack like a cut down situation, “Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense can’t reach it.” In order to be able to raise your soul above attacks using verbal aikido as a mental tool to help in maneuvering properly during such attacks can provide immeasurable benefits. As it toughens your mind by calming it. It uses three core principles to do so where they have to intertwin together in coasting you through the cut down attack.
- Kamae: avoid crumbliness by preserving balance: In aikido, the body’s center of gravity is the anchor to execute a technique and face the opponent. In doing so, you’ve to position your body in a position called Kamae, which facilitates movement without affecting the body stability. By extension, this happens in verbal aikido you have to maintain your mental balance. Essentially, you want to connect with your inner feelings through your thoughts. One of the quickest things you can do is to be perspicuous of how individuals operate. When people try to tall poppy you it is because they are fearful of your shine. It is a form of recognition of being a competent individual. Cognitive empathetic thinking or as it is commonly known as empathetic accuracy it is implicitly a powerful tool to position yourself in the captain’s seat of your emotions and feelings. It allows you not to expend expansive amount of energy on the malicious acts but rather allows you to understand the attacker’s mind and it can show you that the attacker not always a bad person but someone who needs help. Adopting empathetic thinking in approaching such situations can help in sustaining the inner energy by rendering confidence and peace.
- Zanshin: neutralize the attack: The second step in antagonizing the tall poppy situation after maintaining our inner balance, is to neutralize the attack. For instance, if we want to bring a wall down the most effective way is to be on the side of the demolition. Same applied during a cut down situation instead of responding neck to neck, it is better to neutralize the action. Verbal aikido teaches you to use the attackers force to your advantage. When the attack starts you can immediately respond by a smile and expression of gratitude towards their concern. Caveat, it must be stemmed from sincerity That creates an imbalance that will help neutralize tall poppy, criticism.
- Musubi: create healthy balance: The last step to disarm the effect of tall poppy attack is to create a new balance. This step overlaps with the first step of maintaining balance as both require empathetic accuracy. In verbal aikido the main objective is to maintain the calmness and focus on a solution. In order to achieve calmness, you should not trust your gut completely during heightened moment of attack. Instead, engaging your cerebral thinking has far superiority in establishing healthier environment as it allows you to step in the attacker’s shoes, and quickly analyze and evaluate the true motive behind the tall poppy this helps to calm your mind.
To put an end to the tall poppy syndrome we must take control inwardly and outwardly. Inwardly by rewiring our mind to take control of our minds. And outwardly/empathetically by genuinely understand that comparisons are unnecessary. We must put in the effort in training our minds to look empathetically at the preparators as people worth helping while standing our grounds not being a push over, in other words, be dangerous and learn how to control it – there is staggering feeling in knowing that you’re are capable of inflicting pain but you choose to be kind. Think of yourself as a panther, how does a panther move during an attack. Calm and steady allows you to be in charge and makes you confident enough to recognize that the attacks are always coming from below not from above.
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