Don't you know who I am?

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• History of arrogance
• Ari Turunen

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From Napoleon to Van Halen: a science journalist Ari Turunen writes a cultural history of arrogance. However, discussing the arrogance, we find ourselves in a very good company: John Lennon thought of the Beatles as "more popular than Jesus". A Nobel winning writer Bertrand Russell complained about having to talk to the ordinary people using "children's language", and Murray Gell-Mann, another Nobel laureate, but in physics, was even more arrogant when he modestly described himself: "If I see further than others, it is because I am surrounded by dwarfs." "Conceit is the feature appealing to everyone at time to time", says Finnish journalist Ari Turunen in his cultural history of arrogance. The author entitled his book Don't you know who I am?, and he begins it with following words: "Congratulations! This is probably the best book you have ever opened." Quite a remarkable start, with regard to the subject.

Turunen collected anecdotes about the proud rulers such as Napoleon Bonaparte, who was reportedly surrounded by many admirers, and bank managers who are immune to any kind of advice, like Richard Fuld, the last president of Lehman Brothers, which collapsed in 2008 because he had called cowards all those who have warned him of the potential collapse. However, the book also deals with the megalomaniac pop stars such as rock musicians from Van Halen, who, according to Turunen, demanded on every tour a bowl of M&M's from which all the brown candies have been removed of. The book Don't you know who I am? History of arrogance is not only interesting, but also relevant. Arrogance follows the same logic as racism, analyzes Turunen. They are both based on the spiritual torpor. "The basic attitude is to underestimate the other even before you have met them."

Each of us knows someone arrogant, an unpleasant know-it-all that we aree familiar with from work, from the political sphere, the corridors of power, or form the world history - wherever there was enough room for megalomania and reckless behavior. This phenomenon has its own name: hubris syndrome, disorder relating to the possession of power. Ari Turunen's humorous book introduces the reader to the sources of arrogance and opens up a new perspective on the relationship between the cause and effect in the world history.

Ari Turunen, born in 1966 in Helsinki, graduated in social sciences. He has written six popular books on behavior, superstition, lies, resistance and opiates, which are full of colorful anecdotes about patterns of human behavior, as well as being informative and entertaining. Turunen humorously explains the causes of human behavior. For twenty years he has worked as a scientific editor, and he gave numerous lectures on the history of culture and world views broadcasted on the radio shows. Currently he is in charge of communication within a large research project covering 19 countries that is financed by the European Union.

• ISBN: 978-953-8075-27-8
• Dimensions: 128x200 mm
• Number of pages: 204
• Cover: paperback
• Year of the edition: 2017
• Original title: Ettekö te tiedä, kuka minä olen. Ylimielisyyden historiaa
• Original language: Finnish
• Translation: Boris Vidović