Humility and Aggression
From
Ilya Shambat@21:1/5 to
All on Wed Dec 28 20:19:18 2022
I used to be arrogant in the past; I am not now. That is because I’ve come to the realization that other people have done more impressive things than have I, and that it merits to treat people with appreciation and respect.
I have however seen problems with the concept. One is that there are regarded as arrogance all sorts of things that are not. Kids who take school seriously are seen as arrogant. Women who want to be loved are seen as arrogant. People who break societal
rules, however wrong these rules may be, are seen as arrogant. People who have original ideas are seen as arrogant. People who blow their horn are seen as arrogant. If these things are arrogance, then we owe to arrogance most of what we have.
Another problem is how humility is taught. It is taught through bullying and aggression. This identifies humility with bullying and aggression, and that results in people of goodwill rebelling against the concept. The correct way to teach humility is to
convince the person of the fact that other people have done more impressive things than has himself. And that would motivate the person to seek and to learn, resulting in a real growth.
Of course people would see the belief that you can change the world as being arrogance. However we owe most of what we have to people who have done such a thing. From America’s founders to its industrialists to its authors, we see people who believed
that they could change the world; and they did.
When I asked Patch Adams about humility, he told me that if I am doing my own thing I will get all the humility that I need, otherwise humility will always be an issue. Some people would see such an attitude as being arrogant. However in his interactions
with me Patch Adams was not arrogant at all. He went to the bother of understanding my questions, and he responded to them in a way that made me in no way feel inferior, even though he has accomplished much more than have I.
Separate the valid from the invalid. It is valid to be respectful and appreciative of other people. It is not valid to have no confidence in oneself and not to think bold. When you teach something through bullying and aggression, it will be fought
against. And it is by making the mind an ally rather than an enemy that real virtues such as humility stand to be taught.
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