world famous in switzerland
You all know the one about the small dog not knowing it’s a small dog. Well, In a thinly-veiled Brexit swipe, Denmark’s finance minister, Kristian Jensen, recently observed “There are two kinds of European nations: there are small nations and there are countries that have not yet realised they are small nations.” How very dare he! Does he not realise the contribution we’ve made, as a nation, to world history? Surely a recently published study, where individuals from thirty-five nations were asked exactly what contribution their own country had made in the great scheme of things, would set the record straight? 0% meant none and 100% that they were American. Or so you’d perhaps be forgiven for thinking.
A little unsurprisingly, the Swiss came bottom with 11%. Notwithstanding Gruyere cheese, plundered Nazi war art and an impenetrably corrupt tax system, exactly what have the Romans, or the Swiss for that matter, ever done for us? Those supposed out-of-control egomaniacs over the pond came in at a relatively modest 30%, whilst the average understated, unassuming British answer was a whopping 55% – a level of self-aggrandisement exceeded only by the 61% vote of President Putin’s population. With a collective number in excess of 1000% it’s clear every country, even Switzerland, suffers from way too much national narcissism.
Since time immemorial countries have always wildly overestimated their size, wealth, strength and importance; if they didn’t there wouldn’t be invasions, wars and overtly aggressive bullying. And so you’d think we could do all with a little less but imagine how psychologically crushing it would be to have an objective, accurate measure of how insignificant we all truly are? The unhealthy narcissist thinks he’s the master of all he surveys but the wise, perceptive one identifies the middle ground: yes they consider themselves as punching-above-their-weight but not at such a rarefied level that they can’t roll along with everyone else, who, for the record, are also wildly exaggerating their own importance, too!
A dose of national and individual narcissism can be good for you, as you will metaphorically feel on top of the world without literally aspiring to world domination. Enjoy the dramatic week ahead and we are truly living through historical times, even if I am again inflating our importance in the wider world. Denmark? Pah!
