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GARY HAYDEN
n the early 18th century, an actor and playwright named John Dennis invented a machine that simulated the sound of thunder and used it in his new play. The machine was a tremendous success, but the play itself was a failure and lasted only a few performances. Soon afterwards, Dennis went to see a performance of Shakespeare's Macbeth by a rival theatre company and was infuriated to find the company producing thunder in the show using his method. Unable to contain himself, he stood up and shouted:."Damn them. The villains will not let my play run, but they steal my thunder." ln time, the phrase "steal my thunder" entered the English

language.

It was first used to describe a

situation in which one person uses another person's ideas for his own
advantage.
For example, someone might say: "The boss stole my thunder by taking the credit for all of my suggestions." But the use of the phrase was later extended to include any situation where one person deliberately takes attention away from someone else or detracts from their achievements. Stealing thunder, in this second sense, is one of my pet hates. It infuriates me when I see someone else doing it and it exasperates me when I catch myself doing it.

THE OPPORTUNIST I once worked with a woman who

rarely missed an opportunity to steal

other people's thunder. She had worked so hard at it and for so long that she had perfected it
into an art form. One of her most cunning techniques was to devalue others' achievements by means of ill-natured little anecdotes. For example, if you told her that you had just been awarded a degree in economics, she would tell you that she had a nephew who was an economics graduate.

enough. She was so well-practised and so

She would then add that her nephew had really wanted to study physics - but was just not clever

creative that she could undermine just about any achievement however impressive. lf you told her that you had

recently run a marathon in four hours, she would tell you about a neighbour of hers - an asthmatic octogenarian with a limp - who could run a marathon in 3L/ z hours. lf you told her that Time magazine had just named you Person of the Year, she would remind you that Adolph Hitler was granted the same accolade in 1938. I was a young man at the time, with all of a young man's passionate likeb and dislikes, and I grew to detest that woman. As time passed, I began to realise that her most poisonous barbs were always reserved for those by whom she felt most threatened - those who were especial ly competent, accomplished, popular or
good-looking. To be belittled and insulted by her was, in fact, a compliment. As French novelist Victor Hugo once put it: "The wicked envy and hate; it is their way of admiring." Funnily enough, though, this

realisation did little to lessen my dislike.

PETTY AND IRRATIONAL VICE I was pondering on this recently and

trying to pinpoint exactly what it is about thunder-stealing, in the second sense of the phrase, that is so infuriating. I came to the conclusion that it is because it is an essentially petty and irrational vice. Wanting to steal the credit for someone else's ideas or hard work, I can understand. There is after all, something to be gained - such as a promotion or prestige - from it. It is a wrong thing to do, certainly. But it is, in a sense, a reasonable thing to do. But there is nothing to be gained from merely depriving someonb else of the recognition they deserve. This, in my opinion, is what makes it a particularly nasty and objectionable thing to do.
Sary@garyhayden.co.uk Gary Hayden is a philosophy and science writer.