Pride can be argued to be an excess of confidence mixed with the ego and a lack of humility. Much like confidence, pride contains within it an affirmation or belief of one’s value. Whereas cockiness is the pure excess of confidence, in which one believes their abilities to be far beyond their limits, pride is the inflation of the belief in one’s value. In this way, pride and cockiness share a similar root but are neither dependent nor mutually exclusive to one and other. One may be cocky, one may be prideful, one may be both, or one may be neither.
As pride is an excess, any form of pride in one’s self can be seen as hubris. This differs from the notion of being proud of another or of an accomplishment. To be proud of another is merely an expression of the satisfaction or admiration one has in another–it does not require any exercise of the ego. Pride in another can be seen as an act of love and compassion. Likewise, pride in an accomplishment is merely satisfaction in said accomplishment. This type of pride is not choiceworthy insofar as it is a feeling of pleasure and satisfaction.
The pride I speak of is pride in and of one’s self. It is the over-inflation of one’s personal value over that of others. In this sense, pride can be viewed as a form of arrogance. After all, it is pride that tells us that we are too good to work in service positions, and it is pride that tells us we should aim higher than to be a bus driver or janitor (despite both being crucial and necessary positions to the overall community). Carrying this line of thought, pride can be viewed as inhibiting to the love discussed in my previous posts. In viewing one’s self “too good to do x” we don’t allow ourselves to be vulnerable with others. Think of times in argument with a loved one. It is pride that discourages us from admitting to our mistakes or from accepting an apology, or even just apologizing. It’s the idea that “I”m too good to be wrong” or “I’m too good to be fooled another time.”
While this concept of pride may be argued to be a root of ignorance (blameworthy), and it is, it is not the sole root. For ignorance, at its core, is rooted in fear. Likewise, pride shares this root. It is the fear of the lack of one’s worth that gives rise to the false perception of an inflated worth. In essence, pride is the overcompensation in retaliation to the fear that one is unworthy through the belief that one is too worthy.
Fear of the unknown prevents us from accepting new information into our lives. It is pride, however, that inhibits our ability to change our minds after being presented with these revelations. To use a real world example to explain this concept, it is fear of the lack of control that makes us susceptible to ideas that the COVID-19 pandemic was produced in a lab and is part of an elaborate scheme to accomplish X. It is then pride that prevents us from changing our mind when presented with evidence that states the contrary.
Furthermore, pride as an excess in any capacity, is often a cause of embarrassment, and therefore shame. It feeds back into the fear that causes it and develops into a vicious cycle of fear and pride. Embarrassment is the sensation one feels when they fear others’ perceptions of them has shifted in a negative light. Rather than accepting that everyone makes mistakes (such as stumbling when walking), they stubbornly and adamantly adhere to their belief that they are too good to make a mistake. This then causes shame in one’s actions, and results in an inner conflict over how one should never make said mistake again (despite it being an inevitability).
The prideful and hubristic person tends to derive their value externally. This is due to the deep-rooted fear of a lack of self worth. I have discussed the dangers of a self pointed outward in my previous article Love and Acceptance, Desire and Motivation so I won’t go in too much depth here. In externalizing one’s worth, the prideful person may never truly experience anything but a shallow and fleeting satisfaction, as the prideful person soon realizes that whatever accolade or accomplishment they achieve is meaningless without an acceptance of him or herself. This causes them to chase an even bigger accomplishment only to feel disappointment and frustration at their lack of true satisfaction and happiness–another vicious and never-ending cycle.
The Verbose Vomiteer 