Is Pride a Childish Emotion?
And how did pride become one of Catholicism’s 7 deadly sins?
I think pride is a confusing emotion for many people. It’s confusing to people whether they know it or not. It’s confusing because we’re proud of so many different things, and because it’s not always clear whether the things we are proud of are things we really “ought” to feel proud of.
People often feel proud of their demographic identifiers, like their race, their nationality, their heritage, their gender, or their sexuality. And people also often feel proud of their accomplishments, like getting a new job, or winning their tennis match.
And some people claim that while it makes sense to be proud of our accomplishments, we should not feel proud of our demographics — arguing that we should only feel proud of the things we have “control” over, which would not include things like our sexuality or our heritage.
But if pride requires “control”, even pride based on accomplishment becomes hard to establish. Because although most people claim to believe in “free will”, many people also realize that the role that our own “will” plays in any of our accomplishments can be severely diminished, when we consider all the privilege and luck that lead to our successes. And if we don’t “control” our luck and privilege, that makes it…
