QotD: The English

According to the English model [. . .], the public self must be unassuming. No affectation, no self aggrandizement, no kinetic bid for attention. The public self should be modulated, burnished, restrained. In the language of Guest's most repeated screen appearance (This is Spinal Tap), one may not turn the social self up to 11. In fact, you shouldn't go much past 3. 4, tops. No, strike that. Not 4. 3.

The English are really Japanese. Any departure from due form puts the credibility of the social performance in jeopardy and the capital of the social actor at risk. They are an exacting, unforgiving audience. Anyone who dares claim too much or give too little will be found out and made to pay. So intensive is this scrutiny that many English people live under deep cover. Their social interests are almost always better served by concealment than revelation.

Grant McCracken, "Christopher Guest and the English Transformational Modality", This Blog Sits at the, 2006-11-14