For a couple decades now, I've been saying -- sometimes whispering, sometimes shouting -- that a "Pride" parade of any sort is a one-way ticket to the abyss. It's not just the narcissism and raw hubris that seals your fate. It's a matter of externalized self-regard, the focused satellite view of Self which renders everything else more dim and distant than the farthest star. Pride doesn't just go before a fall. Pride doesn't know when it's falling, because there isn’t anything else to compare itself to.
Maybe it's a different kind of pride, but competitive spirits are also a source of positive energy: someone works for years to find a brilliant solution to a scientific problem. Part of him must have looked down on his peers. Is that kind of self-regard not pride? Or someone is severely ill and pride, the desire to not be basket case, helps him still function day-to-day.
The answer, like many answers, lies with Aristotle and the Golden Mean. It's perfectly acceptable to take reasonable pride in your achievements or to feel a warm glow when you hear about the history of your family or your church. It's not reasonable to insist that everybody else celebrate your achievements or give your church special treatment.
A competitive spirit that spurs you to achievement is one thing. A competitive spirit that leads you to cheat and sabotage competitors is another. Pride that leads you to do as much as you can despite your illness is something different than screaming that everybody must make any accommodation you desire because you are sick and they are evil oppressors if they don't.
Here we must look to the words of the Gita. Krishna suggested that you must NOT perform actions with concern for the fruits, but with God in mind, and that you must NOT do actions with accolade in mind
Now bring this to Christ- he stated something very similar: don't pay your alms in public and with fanfare. Don't make yourself to appear to fast when fasting. Pray in secret.
If Pride motivates someone and not selfless service, then that person is on the wrong path.
Very well said. this is a compelling theological piece. if you're not familiar with John Cassian's "Conferences," Evagrius of Ponticus' "Prakticum", and Buber's "I and Thou" I think you might find them useful. there's a conversation to be had between this piece and these other theologians. One thing I find that you hint at is that pride does love to walk with vainglory...
Pride is indeed a tough nut to crack. I considered myself a Nietzschean for decades which is a different form of pride to be sure, but pride nonetheless.
For a couple decades now, I've been saying -- sometimes whispering, sometimes shouting -- that a "Pride" parade of any sort is a one-way ticket to the abyss. It's not just the narcissism and raw hubris that seals your fate. It's a matter of externalized self-regard, the focused satellite view of Self which renders everything else more dim and distant than the farthest star. Pride doesn't just go before a fall. Pride doesn't know when it's falling, because there isn’t anything else to compare itself to.
Maybe it's a different kind of pride, but competitive spirits are also a source of positive energy: someone works for years to find a brilliant solution to a scientific problem. Part of him must have looked down on his peers. Is that kind of self-regard not pride? Or someone is severely ill and pride, the desire to not be basket case, helps him still function day-to-day.
The answer, like many answers, lies with Aristotle and the Golden Mean. It's perfectly acceptable to take reasonable pride in your achievements or to feel a warm glow when you hear about the history of your family or your church. It's not reasonable to insist that everybody else celebrate your achievements or give your church special treatment.
A competitive spirit that spurs you to achievement is one thing. A competitive spirit that leads you to cheat and sabotage competitors is another. Pride that leads you to do as much as you can despite your illness is something different than screaming that everybody must make any accommodation you desire because you are sick and they are evil oppressors if they don't.
Also, the greeks made a distinction between arete (excellence) and the type of pride you're discussing here. I can't recall the Greek word for it atm.
Here we must look to the words of the Gita. Krishna suggested that you must NOT perform actions with concern for the fruits, but with God in mind, and that you must NOT do actions with accolade in mind
Now bring this to Christ- he stated something very similar: don't pay your alms in public and with fanfare. Don't make yourself to appear to fast when fasting. Pray in secret.
If Pride motivates someone and not selfless service, then that person is on the wrong path.
Very well said. this is a compelling theological piece. if you're not familiar with John Cassian's "Conferences," Evagrius of Ponticus' "Prakticum", and Buber's "I and Thou" I think you might find them useful. there's a conversation to be had between this piece and these other theologians. One thing I find that you hint at is that pride does love to walk with vainglory...
Well said
I did notice that the very fact that promotion of degeneracy is promoted as "Pride" is indicative of the dark origins of this behavior
Pride is indeed a tough nut to crack. I considered myself a Nietzschean for decades which is a different form of pride to be sure, but pride nonetheless.