The rules in the law of Jante state:
1. You’re not to think you are anything special.
2. You’re not to think you are as good as we are.
3. You’re not to think you are smarter than we are.
4. You’re not to imagine yourself better than we are.
5. You’re not to think you know more than we do.
6. You’re not to think you are more important than we are.
7. You’re not to think you are good at anything.
8. You’re not to laugh at us.
9. You’re not to think anyone cares about you.
10. You’re not to think you can teach us anything.
and
11. Perhaps you don’t think we know a few things about you?
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante)
Is this your experience of Belgian culture as well? I think it fits, apart from rule 8. Luckily we’re still free to ridicule anything we like 🙂
1 comment
Reminds of the saying “Doe maar gewoon, das al zot genoeg”