A Japanese Saying and The Jante Law

Just watched a very cool movie. It was set in Japan so of course that kept my interest up, and it was about cars and racing which made it even more interesting and exciting. I also liked the philosophy of Han, one of the main characters; “Life’s simple. You make choices and you don’t look back”.

But what really made me think was the old Japanese saying they mentioned; “Deru kugi wa utareru”. “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down“, which really isn’t, if you think about it, all that different from the “rules we live by” here up north. I’m talking about The Jante Law.

1. Don’t think that you are special.
2. Don’t think that you are of the same standing as us.
3. Don’t think that you are smarter than us.
4. Don’t fancy yourself as being better than us.
5. Don’t think that you know more than us.
6. Don’t think that you are more important than us.
7. Don’t think that you are good at anything.
8. Don’t laugh at us.
9. Don’t think that anyone cares about you.
10. Don’t think that you can teach us anything.

I think that The Jante Law is practiced all over the world, only difference is that it’s called something else in other places, and we’re not so unique up here.

~ by Dankku on April 8, 2007.