After providing my definitions of pride and humility, I’ve decided to explicitly lay out why pride and humility are worthwhile virtues. Aristotle believed that eudaimonia (loosely translated as “happiness”) is an intrinsic good and all virtues are means to that end, but I want to bring these philosophical concepts back to earth, to illustrate their practical value.
What exactly are some of the benefits of pride and humility?
The opinions of others become largely irrelevant
The proud individual derives his self-worth intrinsically, from setting and meeting high standards; therefore, he has no need for validation by public opinion. The contrapositive also holds – people who fish for compliments or chase popularity generally have low self-esteem.
Just like how nation states seek to reduce resource dependency (e.g. by domestic extraction rather than import of oil, uranium, rare metals, etc.), self-sufficiency of the ego increases one’s agency. And as I will explore in a future post – agency is power. The proud will never allow social pressure or fear of rejection bind them to inaction. Pop stars and actors may be rich, but their agencies keep them on a tight leash, dictating what they can say or do. That’s because their value is directly tied to their image.
The proud voice their honest opinions and openly love and hate, precisely because they care so little for the opinions of others. Social anxiety and awkwardness are foreign concepts to the proud – with their egos backed by a history of setting and meeting exceptional standards, what difference would the opinions of others make, especially if they’re strangers?
Intrepidity
If pride is an airplane, then humility is the parachute. Pride allows one to boldly take risks in pursuit of desires, while humility ensures that the occasional failure won’t prove terminal. The proud and humble man doggedly chases after his ambitions, knowing that he’s worthy of greatness. And when he occasionally stumbles? He remembers that it is human to err, stands back up, and resumes running. A lesser, arrogant man might find his ego broken and throw in the towel.
Take the caricature of a millennial as an example. From childhood, his parents and teachers constantly reminded him how smart, talented, and special he is, which he internalized in a form of arrogance. Unfortunately, unlike true confidence tempered by humility, the arrogant ego is fragile. Perhaps he coasted through primary and secondary education at the top of his class. But then, upon matriculation into an elite college filled with other smart and talented people, many surpassing him, he finds he’s quite average compared to his peers. His ego falls out of the sky – but he doesn’t have a parachute; that illusory “confidence” shatters. Perhaps he turns to video games or delinquency or something else, but the outcome is the same: without humility, his drive disappears and he stops taking risks.
Keeping better company
How can you expect others to respect you, if you can’t even respect yourself? There’s a good reason nobody likes sycophantic grovelers or idolaters. Those who prostrate themselves to others loudly declare their own inferiority. To befriend someone necessitates respecting them as an equal, so by definition, the shameless (who are, ironically, shameful) can only find good company in other lowly individuals. In other words, if one wallows in self-pity, one will end up surrounded and trapped by fellow whiners, and crab mentality is a powerful force.
Humility is the shield against flatterers and blunts the ego’s edge. Powerful people often find themselves besieged by sycophants looking to benefit by association – those are not reliable companions. Without humility, it is difficult to distinguish steadfast friends and fair-weather “friends” who harbor ulterior motives. The arrogant tend to be far more susceptible to flattery and are far less inclined to hear honest opinions from true friends. If a ruler’s circle of advisors constantly live in fear of disagreeing with or offending their lord, it is nearly guaranteed that they will incubate grievances that could eventually hatch into treachery.
Once again, I point to Genghis Khan as an exemplar. Known as a principled, even-handed reformer and unifier by his people, he found that the best and brightest flocked to his banner the more he accomplished, which in turn, resulted in further success. With the implementation of pure meritocracy, nearly every single commander towered above their contemporary peers in loyalty and in brilliance – the proud attract the proud. On the flip side, the Khan richly rewarded his stalwart companions and treated them like his own family, with their best interests held as highly as his own. He strongly encouraged input from them, since he has always held them in the highest esteem – they may not always agree in opinions, but always in principles. I believe this humility ensured that no general ever betrayed him, even at his lowest point during his ascent; he died surrounded by family and friends.
Open-mindedness
The belief in the fallibility of man and self implies that no person or group has a monopoly on good ideas, so humility ensures that an individual does not give disproportionate consideration to ideas purely on account of their origins. Moreover, the humble acknowledges that wisdom can be found in even the unlikeliest places. For example, Edward Jenner empirically proved that cowpox infections inoculated against smallpox after hearing about the “unsubstantiated rumor” that dairy workers were resistant to smallpox. Another important discovery in medicine was quinine, which natives indigenous to Peru used to halt shivering; a Jesuit apothecary discovered that it was effective in treatment of malaria.
One of the more infamous examples of a lack of humility was Korean Airlines back in the 1970’s to the turn of the century, when a number of fatal accidents plagued the company’s reputation. Korean culture strongly discouraged disagreeing or contradicting your seniors or superiors to protect their egos. The social pressure was so suffocating that junior crew members refused to speak out even when they have information that could prevent a catastrophe, which resulted in many easily avoidable fatalities. In fact, the problem got so bad that Korean pilots were forced to speak English in order to break the ingrained cultural deference for seniority.
Conclusion
At the core, pride empowers the ego to boldly assert itself but also balanced with a measure of prudent humility. There are no easy action plans to become proud and humble; instead, these are mentalities that must be ingrained into the psyche. After all, an insecure, scrawny nerd cannot become proud overnight any more than an arrogant, oversized gym rat can suddenly embrace humility. However, the benefits, as I’ve illustrated, are well worth it – pride begets success while humility insures against failure.