I'm forgetting where I first ran into the tall poppy syndrome.

I know Lewis speaks to it.

Yeah, he writes about it in the abolition of man.

I ran into it in Australia.

If you kind of do a quick Wikipedia of it,

Australia is one of the places kind of noted for this idea of the tall poppy syndrome.

And basically, it's the idea that nobody should stand out, that nobody should shine, that to be the tall poppy is actually a bad thing.

And so you'll find very deep in the Australian culture, they have a very healthy aversion to pride.

Yes.

But unfortunately, it's also kind of devolved into no one should stand out. And therefore, you know, achievement and awards and kind of things that you might see in other places of the world don't operate as freely in that kind of a culture.

The etymology of it is absolutely fascinating.

The concept originates from accounts in Herodotus and Livy.

And Periander, the king, had sent a herald to a very wise man and inquired in what way he would best and most safely

govern his city. And the wise man took the messenger outside of his town and entered into a sown

field. And as he walked through the wheat, he just kept lopping off the tallest ears of wheat and

throwing them away. And it was this secret message. The messenger didn't understand

it, but he went back and told Periander, yeah, it was really weird. I went to the counselor,

and he didn't give me an answer, but he took me through this field and just lopped off

all the things. And Periander knew, oh, I'm supposed to kill all of the aristocracy so that no one can threaten my reign.

That was where the tall poppy thing originated.

Welcome back to the Ransombed Heart podcast, John Eldridge and my son Blaine,

continuing a conversation from last time in the realm of envy, unpacking what envy is,

...