Pride

 

On Page 28 of his book, The Passionate State of Mind, Eric Hoffer has one entry, which I will quote and comment on.

 

Hoffer: “            35

 

Pride is a sense of worth derived from something that is not organically part of us, while self-esteem derives from the potentialities and achievements of the self.”

 

My response: I know of pride, the publicly shared emotion, as a justifiable but humbly, modestly expression about one’s self-attitude based on merited achievement; that is noble pride. Blameworthy pride is being proud of one’s proficiency at being an efficient bank robber, or because one comes from a rich family, or one is proud of the holy cause one slavishly serves. Blameworthy pride is also attitudinal: when one boasts, brags, or is supercilious towards others to make them feel inferior—whether or not they respond that way or no.

 

Hoffer, that superb psychologist, above describes pride as a sense of worth derived from something that is not organically a part of us; I will accept that definition. It seems he is contrasting self-esteem with pride, that self-esteem is a sense of personal worth that is derived from the potentialities and achievements of the self. Self-esteem, then, is an organically connected self-referential emotion about us.

 

Hoffer: “We are proud when we identify ourselves with an imaginary self, a leader, a holy cause, a collective body or possessions. There is fear and intolerance in pride; it is sensitive and uncompromising. The less promise and potency in the self, the more imperative is the need for pride. The core of pride is self-rejection.”

 

My response: Hoffer promotes Mavellonialist morality, my peculiar but realistic moderate, rational egoism-altruism that is individualist-collectivist. He promotes it without every having heard of it, without ever embracing rational egoism, because he preached it and lived it in his morality, philosophizing, and social commentary.

 

Hoffer is not much studied because intellectuals do not understand him, are afraid to understand, or have a glimmer of who he was and what he advocated, and it makes them angry and offended, so they deplatformed and disappeared him.

 

Above, Hoffer is clearly identifying possessing self-esteem as the sense of worth wielded by the individual or individualist that is a Randian first-hander, that has made something of himself and his life, relying on his own ability, his own originality, his hard work and persistence over time. Self-esteem is the sense of personal worth that is organic, growing out of the person’s consciousness and successful effort out in the world. I could label Hoffer’s definition of self-esteem as merited individual pride. The core of self-esteem is self-embracing.

 

Above, Hoffer is explicitly defining pride as a meretricious sense of personal worth that is a poor substitute for absent self-esteem because the agent is a Randian second hander that only feels proud of his associations with causes, persons, events outside of himself that he is affiliated with and may comply by, but he had no hand in constructing or pioneering the objects of pride that external to his being and endeavor.

 

People cannot survive without a sense of worth, that they are worthy and deserve to be alive and admired. They will acquire a sense of self-worth, one way or another.

 

If they are first handers with an earned sense of self-esteem, then their sense of worth is organic to them: it is self-made, authentic, and accurately characterize them as worthy and admirable.

 

If they are second handers, with no right to claim self-esteem, and they damn well know it, then they must lie to themselves and the world, conjuring up a phony sense of worth, pride by association with some alien cause, association, or leader.

 

The person that has renounced himself is a joiner and group-liver, and he is proud.

 

The person, that takes the time and planning to exert himself until he becomes someone of noteworthy accomplishment and success, he has embraced himself, and he has earned the right to esteem himself, though he does not take it too seriously, and knows tomorrow he must keep at it, not resting on his laurels ever.

 

Hoffer: “It is true that when pride releases energies and serves as a spur for achievement, it can lead to a reconciliation with the self and the attainment of genuine self-esteem.”