Pride? Did you know it is one of the
“deadly sins”? Many of the self proclaimed “Christians”
seem to not know this ORR they are hypocrites to their Christian
faith.. Others just aren't aware. “2 When pride comes, then comes
disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”. For those counting,
Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride is the list of them. You can twist your reality all you want, BUT, if you were sitting in front of the god you proclaimed to believe in and tried to squirm out of some pretty clear laws, the judgement would be pretty evident for those who embrace pride.
Agnostic Christianity
If you are not religions, I invite
you to come along for this ride, I refer to evolutionary reasons for
the the dysfunction of pride. BUT, this is geared towards my
Christian readers. If you are reading this, you might know, but not
certainty, that I am an atheist who sees the study of religions,
especially the bible, as crucial to understanding humans. This is
rooted in the realization that “people don't follow bad laws for no
reasons.” The commandments, doctrines, moral and ethical aspects
of the bible, Magna Chartas, Constitutions, are not only found in
that work, but all the similar works from all the other peaceful
religions. I am interested in understanding “Why is the human race
better off accepting these social constraints? What was it our
distant ancestors knew about lying, adultery, theft, murder, “ and
other “sins” that we do not understand today?” For all of our
evolution, the human communities are still the exact same as the
first ones, with all the same needs, dangers, and requirements. As
such, they can be too small and they can be too big. They can be too
forgetful of the past or they can be too rigid to adapt. Physical
characteristics allow a community the tools to grow or the protection
of shrinking into extinction. But it is social laws that hold a
community within those safe boundaries that allows them to remain
robust. This can be summed up with the observation that “There are
things that humans CAN do.. That doesn't mean they are behaviors that
humans SHOULD do.” Often a generation forgets whey the shouldn't do, and start wondering and then revolting, and in the face of public disgrace, they band together and use "pride" as a malice weapon.
How Evil is “Pride” in The
Christian Spectrum?
In this country, we are overflowing
with encouraging “pride”. So why is “pride” one of the deadly
sins? I mean “Pride” has been labeled “The father of all
sins”! And “the Devils most prominent trait.” C.S. Lewis in
his premiere book embraced by many “liberal Christians” titled
“Mere Christianity” says “Pride” is the “anti-God” and
“"Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are
mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil
became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete
anti-God state of mind.” "Pride is understood to sever the
spirit from God, as well as His life-and-grace-giving Presence.” If
you are a Christian, that is pretty dramatic. Being “Severed”
from your God? No?
So again we ask, why so much social
angst towards this individual elation? It has to do with what pride
is. Defined as, “a feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction
derived from one's own achievements, the achievements of those with
whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions that
are widely admired.” The key to understanding why it is a
deplorable emotion lies in calling it “The father”. What does a
father do? What is the quality of anything when it is called “The
father of”? It is the “enabler”. Pride, in and of itself is
not a destructive or dysfunctional thing. Pride is never a stand
alone event. It is a reaction to another behavior. Say you built
something like a bridge or a home. Or you achieve a previously
unachievable feat of endurance. “Pride” doesn't just stop at the
functional or inert behaviors in society, but also among those
degenerate or dysfunctional. A serial killer, a drug dealer who
builds an enterprise, a hit man, a bank robber could also (and often
does) take pride in their work. Pride is a feeling, an option, one
feels even and especially in absence of community appreciation. The reason both religion and evolution disdain "pride" is because of this enabling factor that allows an individual function separate from the group. The exact opposite, "The Opposer" of the collective force that has brought us to this place in history.
A few
years ago the liberals were in an uproar when Romney said, “we
built it” when it came of industry. The “We” was the top 1%.
and he was there promoting the “pride” in what money had bought
ignoring all the laborers and lower wage underlings made it possible. It was the one thing that separated us from them. When it comes to politicians, they all seek to be humble, relatable , "one of us".
Pride, the Evil Friend:
Here is an analogy that might better
illustrate. Imagine you are caught stealing from a donation center.
At that point, there are two things you can “feel”. Each of them
have distinct behaviors related. These behaviors is how the onlookers
in the community KNOW which one you chose to “feel”. The
appropriate feeling should be “shame” and “dishonor”. This
is what the “Angel on your shoulder” the good friend. These lead
to apology. Apology leads to restitution. Restitution leads to
redemption. The young and uniformed looking on see this process, the
effort and pain, and want to avoid it, so avoid undertaking the
initial behavior. Religious or not, we all know this to be the ideal
reaction to being caught doing something bad. But we know it because
we have seen or heard about this example.
Those of us who “believe” or
“have faith” might attribute this to some kind of soul force.
Christians attribute this “known knowledge” to “The Holy
Spirit”. Those of us with more liberal and progressive
philosophies might require a TED talk and a bachelor's degree to
grasp the subconscious.
However, the other option is to
chose is to feel “pride”. It doesn't make sense to take “pride”
in doing something that is clearly socially reprehensible. However,
it is a means of settling the cognitive dissonance in the individual
by self deluding to a positive conclusion. Once the conclusion is
accepted that “one should be proud” then justification is
adapted. “Well it is the Catholic Church and they are bad people”
or “I had not other choice, I have been repressed my whole life.”
The other community members looking on may be confused at first, how
can one take pride in doing bad? Some may have desired to do the
same thing but fear of social ire stopped them. Some may have done it
themselves but didn't get caught. In fact, in the mind of the
“prideful” (If Freud's “projection theory” holds true)
everybody wants to do the reprehensible deed. (Ask anybody who
equates homophobia with people hiding their feelings.) Those looking
on see no pain, no negative openly. Then, in our society, the
criminal is carted away, out of site and they are forgotten. No good
came of the incident. Pride had a negative effect on this community.
Pride is what leads a criminal such as this to believe their own lies
in the future.
The Destructive Nature of Pride in
Capitalist Society
Above I mentioned the unfortunate
claims of Romney and the party who was openly embracing the Icon of
misplaced pride, Ayn Rand. It is often pointed out that, “In
capitalism for one to win means that many other must lose”. The
same is true for any form of competition. You start a business,
muscle out the competition, and rain king of the roost, you feel
“pride”. But the community must pay for or turn their back on
the losers in capitalism. In ours we have “bankruptcies” which
redistribute the pain of those losses among the rest of the
community. In the mean time those left behind, losers may be
starving and suffering defeat. If you think small minded, small
scale, it is easy to brush this off. But, if you live in an area like
I do, where, for example, it used to be littered with small mom and
pop hardware stores, then reflect on today and it doesn't seem so
innocent. Today, there are 6 big box hardware stores, 2 medium level/
over priced version in the much broader area. All the local, more
personal version are gone. There are none. Now, the upper enchilada
of Loews, Home Depot, and Ace are all very “proud” of their
success. BUT, the society is not better off because of it.
Remember, as one athlete put in
thousands of hours, gave up time with family, friends, and studies,
to take home the gold, there is a field of defeated behind him, that
did as much, if not more, to what end. While standing in pride on
the podium comes at the cost of sadness and self loathing behind it.
Just this past weekend, the US girl's soccer team racked up some
unnecessary amount of goals on a severely less talented team that
didn't score a single goal. There was debate over whether they should
have been “proud” or felt “shame” or even been humble during
the game. From a Christian point of view, this does not breed good
will, community, and peace, which are goals according to it's
founder. Pride is like a drug in the capitalist system. One that
wear off quickly and forces the members to seek more as soon as
possible. A CEO that simply maintains market shares is considered a
failure, he must consume more wins in order to be proud of his
accomplishments.
Evolution Has No Use For Pride
We will break from the religious
aspect of pride for a moment and consider why pride has eveoved into
a deplorable emotion (until recently). Imagine you are an “athlete”.
You work hard to do the things that no human body has ever done.
You waste copious amounts of energy to become great at a sport. You
attain the status of greatness. You are beaming with “pride”.
What have you given to the community? Nothing. Provided not food, no
shelter, no protection from the elements, nothing. In fact, if
anything you have provided a distraction. Millions of drunken
parents watching a sports game on their few free hours off work
instead of engaging with their children. Prehistoric man would not
have paid you 10's of millions of dollars per year for playing a
game, they would have chastised you for wasting time and resources.
Can you use that strength to hunt, protect the village, build stuff?
Then they could feel some appreciation. At the same time, that is
the expected behavior of a community member. The community would be
better off if he wasn't so proud.
What of the mother of a newborn. Her
3rd by a 3rd different father. She is beaming with
“pride”. Look what she did? However, that child will require a
civilized and compassionate society to ask its collective to give up
their resources and efforts to raise that child. A child that by all
studies will spend a life disadvantaged to those who grow up in more
structured, complete, and traditional families. Only 100 years ago,
she would have felt shame, and with that shame sought to avoid the
behavior that lead to this outcome. Heck, 100 years ago, I am told my
own mother was sent off to deliver an out of wedlock child in an
orphanage so as to not shame the family. Today, there is support
groups, programs, and elected politicians pounding on the pulpit
about how hard they had it as “a single mother”. In prehistoric
communities, these children cost the tribe resources that they had to
agree to dedicate to them or they and their mother would die.
We live in an artificial society that
enables our irrational “pride”. Sex for sake of pleasure alone,
used of drugs, acts of unnecessary violence are all behaviors that
cost resources. To us, we have ways to stave of the natural
consequences and have the large number of community members share the
burden. It is easy for us to forget that they are threats to the
human existence. That was true when there was only 1000 of us as it
is with 8 billion. And yet we are marching in the streets, electing
the officials, and celebrating months of “pride” in these
destructive behaviors. Hawking has been dead for a year. Meaning he
predicted we have 99 years left to exist as a species. If we do not
start feeling the shame of these behaviors, evolution or the gods
will be done with us.
The whole logical flow chart could
be broken down as such. Did you do it? Did it advance the cause of
the human race? Yes? Then it needed done, no need to be proud of
doing your job. No? Then you wasted your time and resources, you
shouldn't be proud of that. Just as mentioned about Christianity,
Evolution has shown that when humans work together, celebrate as a
group, all collectively benefit, we “evolve”. When we celebrate
individual pleasure as a group, we bring misfortune to he human race.
For example, an entire disease of HIV/ AIDS came on the heels of all
the “Pride” in the “Sexual revolution”. To say “Pride”
isn't destructive can only result of self delusion. Ill never forget
the day my brother told me he had HIV. I was angry. I never showed
him this disappointment openly. I was the only one capable in our
family for caring for him as the disease progressed. Sadly he didn't
get that chance, but that is another story.
“Bragging” is an action that is a
direct derivative of pride. Most people are aware that bragging is
not advancing humanity. Of course we westerners have sunk to the
level of creating something called the “Humble brag”.
My Personal Relation With Pride
I have a story that shows this
movement into dysfunctional psychosis of “pride”. I was once a
recipient of bad circumstance due to extreme intoxication while
visiting a friend in Kent State one weekend. (The detail shall remain
undescribed in order to protect the guilty.) But I ended up in the
crowded hallway with Freshmen and Sophomores in a manner that
elicited negative attention. I was kind of trapped. At some point I
realized I had no way to exit the situation. (I am told, I don't
remember.) I at some point realized the futility of my situation and
raised my hands in the air, started beating on my chest and swinging
from anything I could reach. Given no choice to sulk off in shame, I
chose “pride”. Funny, over the next 3 years that my buddy went
to Kent, I would occasionally meet somebody I had never met before
that said “hey, aren't you the guy that....”. Sober, I knew that
sarcastic denial was my best bet. It was so natural to resort to pride.
On the flip side, as a musician,
everything we did, we didn't take “pride” in. Not really. Not
until (much like the above story) there was no other choice. Honing
songs and rerecording tracks until one of us spoke up (or the money
ran out) and said, “We have to stop. This has to be good enough.”.
In more successful groups, this is the role of a manager. It never
was. Even now as I read the lyrics or listen to the tunes, there is
stuff I wish we had tweaked. When other people listen to the
recordings now, the only thing I think is apprehensions that the
music is dated, cheesy, or unappealing. It was a lot of work being
in a band. I wanted to reach other people like me and let them know
they are “not alone”. We did OK. We made some stories, learned
some life lessons. But rarely was there a sense of “pride”.
The Greatest Virtue
The best way to grasp how negative
“pride” is in a human community is to identify it's polar
opposite. “Humility: is “a modest or low view of one's own
importance; humbleness.” Returning to the theme of this piece,
Christians and “pride”, James 4:6 instructs Christ's followers to
“God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Not only
in it's denouncing of “pride” as a sin, but embracing the exact
opposite as a virtue reinforces that hypocrisy of Christians who
engage in “prideful behaviors”. The very notion of “Sending his
only son” to be a man was to be an example of humility. A man who
did not have sex, did not participate in violence nor allowed his
followers to carry tools of violence (until the last day to teach a
lesson.), and did not engage in intoxication. He didn't come down
and live as a king or a televangelist. He even dined what he was and
let others assign him the titles. These are the virtues exactly
opposite of “pride”.
To those who follow the more
scientific “evolutionary” belief in how we climbed down from the
trees and into the shopping malls, It is not hard to recognize the
dysfunction of pride and the benefit of humility. The essence of how
Humans made the rise to this level top of the food chain was in our
cooperation. Things that encourage and invite cooperation are things
we, in our deep psychological core, deep under water (another Freud
Reference) we know it to be desirable traits. We have rules against
“excessive celebration” in sports. That is “pride”. Too
much bling, too much waste, too much money in your bank account are
considered reprehensible because they are not sharing and exhibit
“pride”. Greed is nothing more than the belief in ones efforts
deserve more than others.
However, if a person dedicates their
success to family, friends, or even a deity, we find that to be more
appealing. That is “humility”. We recognize it when we see a
runner who would have won, come back and help a fallen athlete, when
we witness an animal being rescued, a president rolling up his
sleeves to do manual labor. “Hallmark Movies” are steeped in
“acts of humility”. Any “hero” that stepped up in the face
of danger almost always says the same thing, “I am no hero, I was
just doing what anybody would have done.”
No matter what your passion in life
is, there is an expert. If you were to meet that icon that you look
up to, and they were pompous, have an ego (I hate this use of the
word “ego” but people know what it means in this context.)
swollen by pride, you would shy away. BUT is they came off as
humble, approachable, “human”, you would feel more comfortable
talking to them. In talking their information would be assimilated
with your own. Because of this cooperation, you and your icon would
be better at a task, and the human race would be better. More evolved
for it. Evolution craves humility and rejects “Pride”.
No Matter What Adjective Or The
Philosophy
The African Philosophy of Ubuntu is
devoid of “pride”. To actively work to abstain from pride. That
is not to say that one can not be satisfied with ones efforts and
accomplishments. That is a deep rooted understanding that is meant
to be kept inward. “If everybody isn't happy, how can any of us be
happy?” Most other “peaceful” religions/ philosophies are
apprehensive about exhibiting pride. And as demonstrated here. “Gay
Pride”, “Straight Pride”, “White Pride”, “Black Pride”,
“Donkey Pride”, whatever the cause, according to Christianity, it
is a sin. According to psychology is it dysfunctional. It is a
negative assault on human evolution. These behaviors are not natural,
meaning they can not survive on their own.
Here in America, the notion that
“Pride, is a good thing” is so steeped in our psyche that reading
this inflames most cognition into dissonance. Let's face it, we were
a nation born of doing vial, evil inhuman things. Unless we are full
blood native, all of us are here because out ancestors were so
spineless that rather than make a better place where they lived, the
loaded up a boat, came across the ocean on a dangerous journey,
leaving family and community behind for our own self interest, and
took land that didn't belong to us. A country founded upon the
invasion and genocide of an existing culture. We financed it on the
backs of slaves. Our businessmen and money financed Hitler into power
and funneled money to the Nazis. While we sought to create a bomb so
powerful that it could wipe out the human race. We set up ruthless
puppet government to sell us oil or to allow our products to be
produced without safety and environmental precaution. We devastate
economies, and then reject the immigrants the flee the drug cartels
that we arm, enable, and purchase product from. Currently we have a
leader who is beaming with pride, and embraces the inhumane, and
encourages the unjust. Yet we are “The Greatest Nation” if you
ask the majority of us. Because this country, this community, so full
of pride exists, it is likely we are going to drive to extinct the
human races over the next 100 years.
Like my drunk ass, who found himself
in a hallway with no other option but to manufacture “pride”
where there should never have been any, so are we as a society. “The
Few, The Proud, The Brave”, the decedents of murderous, inhuman
slave owners, addicts fo sex, drugs, violence, and justify it with
our half assed association to religion. Now we are out marching in
the streets maniacally forcing the beliefs into people's faces as if
WE have the “Right” to be right but they are somehow “closed
minded” and therefor “wrong” because they don't believe the
behaviors we believe in.
“One great big festering neon
distraction”. “Pride” .. give me a break. Shame is what we
should be feeling, Retribution is what we should be offering.
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