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RE: A Little Cultural Comparison
It's difficult, I guess, since it's the only culture in which I've been organically immersed.
US culture is, I'm sure, different in many respects from what I've seen on Friends, for example.
I don't know that tall poppy syndrome is so much about the success of peers.
If you move up in the world but remember where you came from, then nobody has much of a problem with it; but if you start peering down your nose at others ten minutes after you've had a sniff of a win, you're going to lose friends, fast.
Brash, unashamed self promotion rubs us up the wrong way.
When we first arrived in Australia our neighbour and landlady was welcoming and friendly. At the time she had a job as a kitchen hand and often talked about how people had looked down one her all her life, but she had found herself a hubby who had worked his way up to supervisor/manager in the building trade and they were on the first step to building their property portfolio.
About a year in she was working towards getting into the police force. She trained, lost lots of weight and eventually made it. The closer she got to her goal, the more distant and aloof she became with us. Towards the end of our tenancy we only really spoke to her husband as she wouldn't have anything to do with us.
I was amazed at the social divide between the haves and haves nots here in comparison to Britain. Now you've put it that way I can see why that divide appears. You rarely see the peering down the nose attitude where I come from and when you do it's laughed about, much in the way that Hyacinth Bucket is laughed about in "Keeping up Appearances". I guess it's rare enough to be humoured.
Good people make terrible cops. Maybe they were training that contempt into her.
There's a lot to unpack there. I have no direct experience of the UK, but perhaps it revolves around the concept of aristocracy.
Over there you can be incredibly wealthy but still a commoner, in many respects less important than a penniless Duke.
Hyacinth wasn't trying to appear wealthy, she was trying to appear well connected. That really makes no sense to us. Still very funny though :)
You could be onto something with the aristocracy. Hyacinth, like many middle class people, was trying to imitate aristocracy, which is wealth, but you're quite right, it's more than just wealth it's elitism. That's where the old money/new money clash comes in. New money doesn't have the family connections or the knowledge and traditions that come with the aristocracy.
The aristocracy don't attempt to separate themselves from the commoners. They will happily sit in the country pub chatting to the locals where the upper middle class think they're too good for that. New money often tries too hard and separates itself from the commoners while aristocracy is confident in their place. They keep the respect of the people because of that. You can imagine it going back to the time when they were the masters of the land and productive people on their land made them wealthy, so a good Lord was usually one that was good to his people too.
The actor, Robert Lyndsay, is from the town I was born and raised. He didn't leave when he gained fame and wealth. Ron Haslam lived around the corner from where Shaun lived. They were small town people and didn't get harassed for their fame by the locals and they didn't treat them any differently.
I know the feeling of watching a show from the US and wincing as the characters allow successes to go to their head. It is actually on of the things that is pretty distinctive between US and Canadian culture. As mentioned I mentioned in my comment to @shaidon there is a very different view on power distance between the US and Australia. Where Americans would refer to their President as 'Mr. President Sir' Aussies would call the Prime Minister Malcolm or even a nickname. How do you see it function within the work and responsibility context here in Australia?
But then Aussies did nothing when Howard banned semi-autos in 96.
Imagine the response if Trump did the same?
His head on a pike would decorate the smouldering ruins of the White House.
It's like Americans have more respect for the Office; while Australians show affection or contempt for the individual who holds the office.
This might stem from the idea that our Head of state is actually the Queen, and the PM is more of a high ranking public servant.
This is true! But there is also the fact that the US established their country (war of independence) and and to a great degree their identity (the civil war) through armed conflict. So the root connection to firearms has a different flavour. I can see what you mean with the individual being held to account. If Australian's are unhappy with the individual in leadership there can be a pretty quick change. Where in the US there is much more hesitation to toss a party leader when things look rough.