This post contains a small amount of commentary on two short quotations that highlight a very big topic.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said something in The Valley of Fear that has been very widely quoted:
“Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius...”
This seems at first sight to be spot on, but it needs to be qualified and expanded.
It is very true that many people can't evaluate or even see people who are far above or ahead of them; it does indeed often take one to know one!
What Conan Doyle doesn't mention however is that some people who are nothing special do know - or sense - talent - or even genius - when they see it, and they may try to discourage, sabotage or even destroy it!
Someone who is only a below-average performer at something or who knows only a little about a subject can often see very clearly that other people are much better at it than they are or know much more about it than they do. They may acknowledge and show respect for this, or they may feel envious, diminshed and resentful.
This is from Robert A. Heinlein's science fiction novel for younger readers Have Space Suit—Will Travel:
“Some people insist that 'mediocre' is better than 'best.' They delight in clipping wings because they themselves can't fly. They despise brains because they have none.”
This too is very true: some people do indeed try to cut others down to size; I have seen and experienced this for myself. The tall poppy syndrome comes to mind here, as do the crabs in the bucket who try to drag down a fellow crab that wants to climb up and escape.
Fear, negativity, envy and spite are often behind such mean-spirited behaviour. Rafael Sabatini's proposition that equality is a by-product of envy is relevant here, and so are these words from Kathleen Raine's autobiography Farewell Happy Fields:
“…winged souls are more often dragged down by the commonplace herd, who, ignorant of the use of wings, clip them and forbid their flight, than the wingless injured by the escape of the winged ones…Who, among the vulgar, heeds the misery of imagination hampered and thwarted?…”
There is more to come about all this.
