Build ‘Em Up: Knock ‘Em Down
There’s a terrible affliction taking over the world: it’s called Tall Poppy Sydnrome and there appears to be no cure. An honest look at the way the world raises someone to the highest heights of success just to tear them down again.
Then the next faze begins. It’s what I like to call legal stalking. The paparazzi and by extension the media and by further extension the public start following the artist down alley ways, streets, into supermarkets and malls and to their homes. All in an attempt to get a picture of them doing something that we think they shouldn’t be doing. Which will further the rumours and deepen the doubt that had been established.
By the end of it, we’re watching in awe as the person/people/artist we adored is publicly humiliated and begins believing all the bad things that are being said about them. In extreme cases, we watch horrified as they engage in self destructive behaviour that leads (famously) to being strapped in a gurney, wheeled from their luxury mansion and loaded into a waiting ambulance all while the cameras flash.
It’s this side of human nature that appals me. We set these people up to fail. We raise the bar so high there’s no way they can ever meet it. And then when they can’t we torture them for it. I’ll admit that I fall victim to this myself. I follow the reports on all my favourite stars and I’m interested in seeing what project they’re doing next. In reading interviews, etc. But there has to be some sort of middle ground. There has to be a way that allows people to live their lives without falling victim to the Syndrome.
Elvis, The Beatles, Liz Taylor, Michael Jackson, The Brat Pack (1980s young stars for those too young to know that) and now the Twilight Cast. The new Brat Pack and the syndrome is already starting for them. Why is the success of others so threatening to some? Why are we slaves to the base human instinct? Isn’t there a way to switch it off? Can’t we just be happy for people who are able to find success in their lives? All questions that will probably never be definitively answered. As a child I was always taught that jealousy was a curse that we had to overcome if we ever wanted to be happy. It seems that it’s something we teach our children but not something we practice. A case of ’do as I say, not as I do’.
Maybe we all just need to be a little bit more secure in ourselves and that way we won’t feel threatened by others. Maybe we need to realise, once and for all, that success does not mean that the whole world knows your name. That there are 6 zeros on your pay check. That there are websites dedicated to you and only you. That it’s your face on the cover of all the magazines. I often wonder if you asked these ’stars’ if they could do their job, the thing that they love, without all of those things, would they still do it? Would it hold the same appeal? I have to believe it would. After all, how many writers use a pseudonym name?
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