Achievement
Some people want to convince us that Europe is a class-ridden place where personal achievement is undervalued, even considered obscene, and family origin means everything, while the US is a meritocracy where personal achievement — especially making a lot of money — is considered the highest virtue.
It’s all true, at least the first half of that argument.
Just seen on BBC World, which tends to be on while I’m working, something called the “Brit Awards.” (Confusingly, a US band called “Scissor Sisters,” which must be really hard for Brits to pronounce — something like “sssss” — won three awards, and Gwen Stefani also got one, but never mind.) Someone called Joss Stone, whom I believe to be a woman rather than a band, also won an award and gave a statement afterwards along the lines of “wow, why am I getting this — I haven’t done anything extraordinary — I just sing, you know — and I’m this girl from <insert stupid place in England>.”
What is this European obsession with place of origin? I can understand that in the case of wine, but with people?
There was another UK band whose first sentence was “we can’t believe this is happening, after all we’re just a bunch of blokes from East Sussex” (I believe — I have no idea what these British place-names mean).
When people introduce others around here, they would say something like “This is Jasmina from Tuzla” or “This is Thomas from Basel.” Would you ever introduce your friend as “Ted from St.Louis” unless he lived there? (When in fact he’s become a real Upper-West-Side boy, our Ted.)
