Sunday, September 9, 2012

Pride And False Humility

What is pride? Pride is more than just an obnoxious behaviour of boasting and talking unceasingly about oneself. It is self-centeredness. The obnoxious boastful person's self-centeredness is just restricted to himself (小我). There is another more subtle pride, a bigger self-centeredness, such as tribalism, racism or nationalism. You are proud of your bigger self (大我). This bigger self can be so big that it encompass the whole creation, except God. Many leaders appear selfless in their pursuit of their ideals. They demand sacrifice of the smaller self to achieve the bigger self (犧牲小我,完成大我。)

Many Chinese hoped to practice humility by avoiding pronouns referring to self, such as "我 (I)". They use other words, such as  在下 (one who is in a more inferior position) and 後學 (one who is more junior in study), but if you look carefully, it is still about comparing self with another (上下前後).

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