tired-lupin: egdramaqueen: headcanonsandmore: pleurocoelus: harrypotterconfessions: I think it’s str
tired-lupin: egdramaqueen: headcanonsandmore: pleurocoelus: harrypotterconfessions: I think it’s strange Rowling made ambition one of Slytherin’s traits. It’s portrayed as evil, or at least inherently harmful (since it’s what drives several characters to join Voldemort) but I think ambition is an important trait for a person to have. It’s what compels us to better ourselves and our world, to make sure our kids have it better than we did. And I’ve dated people with no ambition before. 0/10, would not recommend. Maybe it’s a British thing? I can’t say because I’m not British, but I’ve noticed a few quotes from British people who say that ambition is frowned upon in their culture. A woman, who shall remain nameless, said to me, ‘You’re going to love LA, Paul, because over here ambition is not a dirty word.’ And I thought, ‘Well, you’ve named one of the things that I feel quite patriotic about.’ It’s still a little bit embarrassing in Britain if you’re seen to try. - Paul Bettany As a Brit, I can confirm that we tend to be suspicious of ambitious people. It’s considered something of a social taboo to be open about your ambition. That might explain why British actors are so often considered ‘modest’ by American audiences, because they have something of what we call “British reserve”, which values modesty over ambition. British friends, is this true??? I’m not British but I recognize this as a Swedish thing aswell, we have this thing called “jantelagen” that is a set of rules that a danish author wrote down in 1933. These rules are all basically “you are not special/smart/good and should not think so” and are engraved in our society. It’s often frowned upon to believe in yourself or be outspoken about your ambitions since that would imply that you think you are better then others. People who go to certain schools are made fun of because the schools are good and hard to get into. When people talk about their success they also downplay it and make fun of it themselves. Me and all my friends are in our early 20s which means we are constantly asked what our life plan is and what we want to do and the answer is always no matter how sure you are of what you want to do “maybe continue studying if I can get in anywhere, but I don’t know” because saying “studying this in that school” would be seen as brash and almost rude. This is slowly shifting but ambition is still seen as something shameful and being modest on the brink of self deprecating is more socially accepted and expected of you I can confirm this is also part of Finnish and Norwegian culture in my experience.. -- source link