case against pride

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Along with jealousy, I despise pride the most. Not in the biblical sense but in the damage it causes between people.

I was setting up shop for the Greek independence day parade they hold in Toronto every march and a woman from a radio station came up to me and asked if I was Greek. She then asked if she could interview me. I said sure and her first question was. "you must be very proud of this day and to be Greek?"

I said to her that I wasn't proud. I said that pride is what leads to racism and prejudice feelings towards others because pride automatically implies superiority. She then said, "This was a great day in your history" Aren't you even a little proud?"

I said "no" and rephrased what I had already told her. I said that I was grateful for being Greek for having the opportunity to experience the beauty that the Greek culture offers but definitely not proud. Later that day, I kept listening to the radio station to hear what she had reported. The story came up and there were half a dozen or so sound clips of people saying "I am very proud to be greek", "I feel proud today" and a few other variations of the same idea.

In my head, I thought "really?" after all the knowledge as a species that we have gathered, we still think that pride is something good. And people will actually say that it's ok because it's the good kind of pride. THERE IS NO GOOD KIND OF PRIDE!

It's Pride that causes feelings of superiority and feelings of superiority justify hurting others and even killing them. It's this pride that has caused genocide throughout the ages. Yet, it's in our every day use. We say "I'm so proud of you" without even thinking about what we are saying. Maybe at this level, I'm being a bit anal but I don't think so. Even that little phrase creates feelings of superiority to the person we are saying it to. I know we say it to make someone feel good about something but I think that mentality has to change. If we want to make someone feel good, there are other ways of doing it.
It's odd to me. Pride and other bad feelings we have towards each other. We are given this one life and whether by chance or by a god doesn't matter. Even if there is no afterlife, why would we waste even a single moment of this one chance to experience and learn on ugliness? I find it counterproductive to life itself.

[koutavaki]

very good topic although I agree and I disagree in a way.

I agree because pride is often brought about by the ego, if one has an overblown ego, then that leads to hate and hate leads to killing and violence.

I dont know if I can agree that there is just one "type" of pride though.

One can be proud of being Greek because of his or her roots, his or her history, his or her traditions and their own beautiful country. Yet this type of pride doesnt always lead to hate and violence. For many years Greece has been attacked by iits surrounding countries for Greece's beauty, culture and everything related to Greece. They all want a piece of this beautiful country and yet, even as proud Greeks, we never started any type of war. Greece was never the one to start battle for any type of reason, Greece was the attacked and never the attacker and yet so proud.

So in a sence I know what you mean and in another sence, if we let this pride, get too much out of hand, it can lead to disaster.

I like how you answered this reporter though, Im not proud, Im greatful and so we should! Greatful and blessed!

[RetroGino]

Even though i didn't have to put a lot of work into my looks because I'm naturally gifted, I don't think there's anything wrong with being proud of how great I look

[mbratza]

Any "Greece"ball Ginos in da house???

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