Evil flourishes when good men do nothing...

Is what I heard today...

I like this quote, it is interesting, and true... probably. I guess I'll have to put some more thoughts about it... I actually don't even know if it is a citation from someone famous... Does anybody knows?...

I heard something quite interesting about Australian culture the other day... It seems that basically since you are a child, being average is the way to go, being intelligent is not something "good"... Clever kids are picked on quite seriously... And the whole country had a tendency not to push towards excellence... We talked about this with a friend of my new housemate because I was telling her about this "typical" relaxed attitude about "not caring about anything"... And she said that it probably comes from there, but that it is on its way to change... She also said she thinks it comes from the the "ancestors" of australians who were all convicts and started this whole vision of "too good" is not good... Better be average...

AND, this makes me think about something else, I am probably making a big deal about this but I don't understand... Like in US, which was quite problematic when you arrive, people tell you, even if you just shortly meet in a corridor "How is it going" and you're supposed to have the time to answer, re-ask and get an answer (I hate it)... Well anyway, HERE, when you accomodate and manage to say "good thx what about you?"... ANYONE will answer "not too bad"... WHY... that sounds negative... it's not "good", it's not "ok"... Not too bad, means "bad"... I really don't understand how such an expression became so widely used as if it's normal... I tried to see if we have smthg similar in french but couldn't...

Maybe all of this is linked in the country here...

Anyway now for the good news :)

Lots of pictures ^^

The end of my trip in Japan (including the awesome trip to Chiba)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=283058&id=577693658&l=a3f81b8c37

Part one in France

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=283180&id=577693658&l=81c128799f

Part two in France

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=283181&id=577693658&l=18f03ebfe3

See youuuuuu for more later

Comments

[Laura]

I am always impressed by your general knowledge and/or way of finding answers...
I didn't know this quote was that famous :-o

About excelling people, it is true as well in France. But as I grew up, I noticed that this habit to discriminate elite people fades away, and becomes something respectable, at least both in France and Belgium according to my own experience... So I tend to think that it might be more excessive here, or maybe it started not a long time ago to change, and they need some more years to have a similar behavior than in France or elsewhere...

So you also use "not too bad"? Not sure I've heard this, at least not that often, in US. and ACTUALLY Pauline found out we have a similar one in french... Can't believe I never noticed (it's not so commonly used anymore though)... I wonder who started to use it first :p.

Thanks for your comment :)

[qkslvrwolf]

The quote is Edmund Burke misattibution, but it's very popular because it feel very true. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke#Probable_misattribution

Large parts of the US have the same problem with people thinking that excelling is a bad thing. For instance, this comedian talking about the problem with people thinking that being good at something is bad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBzYSUI5_GM

Can't really help you with the negative reply. I do that myself. :-)