[extropy-chat] blatant self aggrandizement

[Damien Broderick]

At 10:49 PM 1/29/2007 +0000, BillK (a UKsian) wrote:

>In Damien's case you have to remember that he comes from an Australian
>cultural background, where mocking the self-important is traditional.

Spot-on. Even though I've been steeped in US literature and popular 
culture all my life, it wasn't until I'd been living here for a 
couple of years that I finally cottoned on to how extremely *alien* 
this mind-set seems to be to most USians. I don't mean that Americans 
are pompously self-important, but rather that a certain *thrusting* 
quality is not merely acceptable but almost mandatory if you want to 
get anywhere and be taken seriously. And somehow this is combined 
with a sort of politeness beside which Aussie self-mocking irony 
looks oafish and bumpkinish (whereas we tend to regard brandished 
self-confidence as a sign of the con artist, and carefully cover our wallets).

Damien Broderick