....well actually it is not a thing per say, but here goes.
A Scandinavian author wrote a book about a fictive community called Jante - hence he created the Jante Law, which has 10 rules about "Don't think you're anyone special or that you're better than us."
Despite this law being fictive, it is actually incorporated into many Scandinavian people's behaviour. This fact actually makes me ashamed on behalf of my fellow citizens, since our countries usually have a "picture perfect" perception of Scandinavians. And when they get to know/experience this law, they are shocked. Well if you read on, you will realise, just how bad that is........
The ten rules are:
Don't think that you are special.
Don't think that you are of the same standing as us.
Don't think that you are smarter than us.
Don't fancy yourself as being better than us.
Don't think that you know more than us.
Don't think that you are more important than us.
Don't think that you are good at anything.
Don't laugh at us.
Don't think that anyone of us cares about you.
Don't think that you can teach us anything.
I HATE THIS!!!!!
I don't use the "hate"-word often, but this is one of the rare occations where it is very much alive in my vocabulary.
Sadly a lot of my family members live by this rule, but you will never get them to admit it. One of my brothers also hates this, and we try to stick together in our more positive attitude ... one thing that might have influenced os more positively is likely to be that we, in our jobs, depend on people from other countries/cultures.
When I was on sickleave due to stress, the doctor immediately wanted to find out just how much my surroundings was influenced by this - and it was a shocking discovery... but so many pieces suddenly made the picture very clear, and I had something to work with. It's a terrible thing, but that is the main reason why I don't have much contact with my family due to all this, it takes days to recover mentally after a visit, because suddenly I am a target for not having the same opinions/"beliefts" as them.
Luckily none of my friends live by the Jante Law - just like me, they hate everyting about it.... And can easily relate to how tough it is having to endure surroundings living by this "law".............. And there would be absolutely no creative people in this country, if they didn't break the Jante Law.....
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