The Good, The Bad, and the Proud

“Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar”

The Good, the Bad, and the Proud

Is Pride a Good thing or a Bad thing?

 The idea of ‘Pride’ has always been in a love-hate relationship with the morality of humankind. On one side, great thinkers, such as Aristotle, argue that pride is a positive and helpful virtue. Most religions, however, believe that pride is the greatest sin; it is said to be the cause of all other sins. Pride is the worst of the Seven Deadly Sins. Shakespeare even advises, through the character of Polonius, “Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar”; this means that one should be neither too proud, nor too humble. 

Many philosophers argue that pride is a good virtue, Aristotle among them; he said, “Pride, then, seems to be a sort of crown of the virtues; for it makes them greater, and it is not found without them.”- (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics). Such philosophers believe that pride is how one respects himself or herself.  They believe that, without it, one would have no reason to trust one's ability to live or that one would have no reason to accept that life is worth living. Many ancient and contemporary intellectuals have even gone so far as to separate the “good pride”, that is the pride that helps to keep someone optimistic and respectful to themselves, from the “bad pride”, that is the arrogant, sinful, and over-confident pride. They have labelled the “bad pride” as hubris and tried to make it a totally separate concept. Even in our society today we have such a distinction; arrogance is frowned upon, and ‘pride’ is considered a healthy emotion and is promoted because of belief that “good pride” will help us succeed. 

In contrast to Aristotle, many religions and cultures disprove pride. Pride is considered the most harmful of the Seven Deadly Sins, because all sins are derived from pride; they are all seen to be a form of self-worship. Even in the legends of ancient origins, and stories of old, proud characters were eventually doomed. In ancient Greek culture, it was thought that the Gods were disgusted by the pride of humans.  
Even national pride is sometimes looked down as a bad thing. This is because of the bad memories people have of the last time someone was serious about national pride; Hitler’s regime had such a negative effect on German national pride that during the 2006 World Cup Finals Match, people were afraid of all the pride being shown. Generally speaking, those who disprove of pride do not separate “good pride” and “bad pride”; instead, all pride is seen to be bad, even in the smallest doses of it. 

But there is another side as well. Most people have heard the proverb, “Too much of a good thing is bad”. Most of us have also heard of yin-yang and the philosophy that groups the two opposite sides into a single existence. Applying such a philosophy to the relationship of “bad pride” and “good pride” it becomes clear that, in fact, pride is a single idea, and that too much of it is bad, but small amounts of it may be constructive. For example, a small amount of pride helps people to maintain their freedom; people who are too humble develop a ‘slave’ mentality. Too much pride is harmful because it causes Superiority complex, a psychological disease. The underlying fact is that pride is the same emotion in different people, however, it comes in different concentrations. 

In the end, it does not matter which philosophy one believes in. What matters is that ‘slave’ mentality does not become the dominant mentality. That being said, over-confidence, narcissism, and arrogance are bound to be doomed and are harmful, not only to one’s psychological state, but also to the rest of the world; Herr Hitler is a well known example of this. Cultures should wake up and realize that pride is not “bad” or “good” in essence, but that there is a golden mean for it.