Is pride always negative? Even for once, do people think pride as
positive? As how the Webster dictionary defines pride, it is justifiable self-respect,
haughty behaviour, ostentatious display, and elation over an act or possession.
To emphasize these definitions, Benedict de Spinoza(1632-1677) said that “Pride is pleasure arising from a
man’s thinking too highly of himself(p.2) .”In other words, it is
about how man becomes too proud about himself or accomplishments. Everyone has
their own pride. On how Benedict de Spinoza deliver his quotation, he is saying
that pride is negative. In my opinion, in some ways pride is bad if it is too
much but if it is not then it can be good somehow. Pride can be good or bad
depending on how you use it. It always depends on the person.
People tend to be confident about themselves and
sometimes it is too much that other people get
irritated. Others boast about their strengths, accomplishments that they are
already degrading other people who are not good at a particular area or field.
For example, a student that is intelligent and really smart when it comes to
math and science, while his
classmate is having a hard time studying. Instead of the smart student helping his classmate, he
will not help him because of too much pride. That too much pride may cause him to think that helping
others will put him at the bottom list. It means, that smart student wants to
be on top always. Hence, pride can make
people arrogant.
In other
situations, pride can also affect one’s
relationship. It can be a relationship between lovers, friends even families. For example, a couple had a serious fight and because of too
much pride, they do not want to see each other.Let us
say that the guy has too much pride, even though he knew that it was his fault, he would not say sorry to his partner. And because of too much pride, he does
not want to say to his partner that he cannot live without her; he wants to
prove that he is strong. On the other side, the girl, who does not have that much pride, asks for
forgiveness just to end that fight. She lets her boyfriend dominate her which
is also not good in a relationship not only for lover also for other kinds of
relationship. This can also happen between friends. Of course like lovers,
friends cannot avoid misunderstandings. Let us say that there are two girls and
they are best friends, they had a fight that they do not want to talk to each
other. The two of them have too much pride that they will not say sorry to each
other. As a result, their friendship will broke. In the
case of family, the situation may be between parents and sons or daughters. For example, the father of the family does not want to sell his farm
but his son wants to sell it because his father has cancer and in order for
them to pay the expenses, they want to sell the farm. The
father does not want to sell it because it is his farm and he took good care of
it. In this situation, it can be concluded that pride can destroy some
relationship.
People tend to say that pride is always negative.
If there are negative effects of pride, it
has also positive effects. Pride can affect one’s performance. It is not bad if
it is not too much, but also it is not good if you do not have that much pride.
For instance, there is a student that is really good in speaking; he is
always confident and because of his confidence, his teachers always give him a
good feedback. Pride can help to increase one’s self-esteem. Also pride can
affect the mood of a person. It makes a
person happy because he feels that everybody can appreciate his work.
Charles Caleb Colton(1780-1832) said“There
is a paradox about pride - - it makes some men ridiculous but prevents others
from becoming so.(p.2)” It means that pride does not
only have negative effects but also positive effects to people. In the society, negative
effects of pride is really evident and it is because on how people use it in their
everyday lives. Do not let the negative effects to wash out the positive
effects of the pride. It always depends on how people use it. Always keep in
mind that having too much pride is not good as well as having a low pride.
People always believe that when one is depriving his own pride, he is a good
person but it is not true. When a person do not have much pride that he does
not have any respect for himself, other people will take advantage of it and
will not have a respect for that person.
Reference:
Pride.(n.d).The Merriam-Webster Dictionary(p.413).Springfield,Massachussetts:Merriam-Webster,Incorporated
Pride quotes.(n.d). retrieved
from http://en.proverbia.net/citastema.asp?tematica=942&page=2
Brainy quotes(n.d).retrieved
from: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/pride.html
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