India won the Cricket World Cup (2011) last night, and people all over the country went crazy. Well, nothing's wrong with it. It's a big event that justifies the merriment.
What I want to talk about is how people in their excitement say they are "proud of the team". I mean, being happy with the victory of my country's team is one thing, and taking pride in their victory is quite another. I would definitely not say such thing as I am proud of the Indian cricket team, or any team, for that matter, unless I am a part of it. It's irrational to take pride in something in which you have no personal contribution.
Pride is a feeling of satisfaction over something by which you measure your self-worth.
I measure my self-worth by the things that I do, not by the things which my country's cricket team does! Often times I see people "being proud" of the great personalities. They would say they are proud of so and so person for he did so and so great things. What they don't seem to get is this: How what someone else does, affect their self-worth?
In Is it Good to Be Proud of One's Nationality and Skin Color? I discussed several possible reasons for such irrational pride. One of them which applies here is –
Desire to be a part of something greater than oneself. It means identifying oneself with a greater entity and involves taking credit for someone else's good qualities. It's done to feel inflated self-worth. This desire is often latent and one hardly ever realizes having it.
It's a personality weakness. And here's how it affects people who have it. These people associate their self-worth with, say, the team they are rooting for. Now if the team wins, then these people feel as if they won. But the flipside of this personality weakness is, when the team loses, these people feel they lost. Consequently, they become frustrated and go down in the dumps. Some even go on to smash the TV and things, you would know that. Both types of reactions are sides of the same coin; that is, this personality weakness of associating one's self-worth with others' actions.
Whenever I discuss this "taking irrational pride" issue I hardly see anyone agreeing with me. Invariably they would argue what's wrong in being proud of good things. There's a difference between liking some good thing, and taking pride in it. The latter thing essentially requires your personal involvement (efforts) in that which is being taken pride in, because only then it becomes a measure of your self-worth.
Personal development is all about finding our weaknesses and fixing them. Tendency of irrational pride is a serious personality weakness from that angle.
If the Indian team loses, it's not my personal loss. And in the same way, if they win, it's because of their efforts, not mine. So, what should I be proud of? I enjoyed the game, and since I was siding with India I am happy they won. That's it.
What I want to talk about is how people in their excitement say they are "proud of the team". I mean, being happy with the victory of my country's team is one thing, and taking pride in their victory is quite another. I would definitely not say such thing as I am proud of the Indian cricket team, or any team, for that matter, unless I am a part of it. It's irrational to take pride in something in which you have no personal contribution.
Pride is a feeling of satisfaction over something by which you measure your self-worth.
I measure my self-worth by the things that I do, not by the things which my country's cricket team does! Often times I see people "being proud" of the great personalities. They would say they are proud of so and so person for he did so and so great things. What they don't seem to get is this: How what someone else does, affect their self-worth?
In Is it Good to Be Proud of One's Nationality and Skin Color? I discussed several possible reasons for such irrational pride. One of them which applies here is –
Desire to be a part of something greater than oneself. It means identifying oneself with a greater entity and involves taking credit for someone else's good qualities. It's done to feel inflated self-worth. This desire is often latent and one hardly ever realizes having it.
It's a personality weakness. And here's how it affects people who have it. These people associate their self-worth with, say, the team they are rooting for. Now if the team wins, then these people feel as if they won. But the flipside of this personality weakness is, when the team loses, these people feel they lost. Consequently, they become frustrated and go down in the dumps. Some even go on to smash the TV and things, you would know that. Both types of reactions are sides of the same coin; that is, this personality weakness of associating one's self-worth with others' actions.
Whenever I discuss this "taking irrational pride" issue I hardly see anyone agreeing with me. Invariably they would argue what's wrong in being proud of good things. There's a difference between liking some good thing, and taking pride in it. The latter thing essentially requires your personal involvement (efforts) in that which is being taken pride in, because only then it becomes a measure of your self-worth.
Personal development is all about finding our weaknesses and fixing them. Tendency of irrational pride is a serious personality weakness from that angle.
If the Indian team loses, it's not my personal loss. And in the same way, if they win, it's because of their efforts, not mine. So, what should I be proud of? I enjoyed the game, and since I was siding with India I am happy they won. That's it.
"Whenever I discuss this "taking irrational pride" issue I hardly see anyone agreeing with me."
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you over this Darshan.
The reason there was such an inflated ego amongst the Team India supporters made me feel sick and not cheer for the team, I wished SL would've won the game so the ones who were so boastful about the team that they are not even a part of would've learned a lesson. But i'm none the less happy that Indian Cricket Team won the worldcup cuz after all, they weren't the one boasting to be the best!
:)
you know i will disagree.. i think u did a post similar to this about taking pride in the country..
ReplyDeletethe way i see it..people can be proud of anything that you are related with.. your parents can be proud of you,, thou they might have not any direct influnce on you.. you can be proud of your parents deeds..
Being proud is not something that has to do with only "me or I" the word can be associated to anything that is related to you..
one can be proud of one's country of origin even thou one lives in a foreign country simply because he is related to that country some how..
You can be proud of your parents thou u might not have contributed to their acheivements.. its simply on the basis of relationship..
You can be proud of being a human, or being a indian, or being a gujarati.. or anything.. it not neccessary that you can be proud of only yourself..
you are misunderstanding the implication of the word "proud". Being proud is not about personal acheivemnet..
I do not understand pride in country/heritage either. If you ask people to explain it, I think they will usually not be able to offer any rationale.
ReplyDeletePride is an emotion, and emotions are illogical. I believe pride in any form to be illogical, because I believe in determinism; that is, no free will.
Being proud of your country is like being proud of the moon.