Andrei Postelnicu on the Romanians' lack of self-irony

Andrei Postelnicu describes in the daily Evenimentul Zilei the inability of Romanians to make fun of themselves. "The ability to laugh at oneself is part and parcel of day-to-day life, especially in Anglo-Saxon countries. Self-irony is an expression of people's ability to take a step back from themselves and not always take themselves too seriously. It means accepting that you're not perfect and looking at your own reflection with a minimum of honesty. On a somewhat deeper level what we're talking about is a certain self-assurance: feeling good enough about yourself to admit your limitations. That's unheard of in Romania. The very idea of not taking yourself seriously is heresy. Admitting your limitations would cause an outrage, an inadmissible violation of our codes of conduct. Here it is far more important to erect facades of invulnerability and infallibility."

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