I Hate Pridefulness
Pride needs to be right, and it needs the other side to be wrong. Pride needs to win, at any cost. It insists that everyone who disagrees with it is wrong to the point of insanity, and it loves knocking those people down a peg. Pride loves hurting people who disagree with it, because that makes it feel strong. Pride needs to respond - to strike back, even when striking back helps no one, accomplishes nothing and hurts everyone involved.
Pride is a bully that refuses to even consider the possibility that it's anything but the hero of the story. A story that it twists into pretzels - vilifying everyone besides itself, blowing their actions, large and small, completely out of proportion, projecting its own faults onto them - if that's what it takes to avoid looking at it's own actions. It needs it's actions to be justified, which means vilifying everyone else. If pride can convince itself that the other person acted despicably, then that lets it justify all of it's own viciousness. Pride is insidious, admitting token bits of fault and weakness in order to try and fool itself and others into thinking that it's taken ownership of it's actions, when it's actually done the opposite.
Some people make pride a way of life - but even the rest of us sometimes let our pride-monsters get the better of us on issues that are close to our hearts. Look at the issues that mean the most to you. Look at the most vicious fights you've had - with strangers, and with people you're close to. Can you honestly say that pride didn't have a hand in how you handled things? Can you honestly say that what pride contributed to the fight did anything but hurt everyone involved?
Pride is a bully that refuses to even consider the possibility that it's anything but the hero of the story. A story that it twists into pretzels - vilifying everyone besides itself, blowing their actions, large and small, completely out of proportion, projecting its own faults onto them - if that's what it takes to avoid looking at it's own actions. It needs it's actions to be justified, which means vilifying everyone else. If pride can convince itself that the other person acted despicably, then that lets it justify all of it's own viciousness. Pride is insidious, admitting token bits of fault and weakness in order to try and fool itself and others into thinking that it's taken ownership of it's actions, when it's actually done the opposite.
Some people make pride a way of life - but even the rest of us sometimes let our pride-monsters get the better of us on issues that are close to our hearts. Look at the issues that mean the most to you. Look at the most vicious fights you've had - with strangers, and with people you're close to. Can you honestly say that pride didn't have a hand in how you handled things? Can you honestly say that what pride contributed to the fight did anything but hurt everyone involved?
36-40, M
