I’ve considered the subject of “pride” before but never as one of the canonical deadly sins.
Someone (who’s now bojo’ed) slipped in an interesting question at the end of the comment section of the previous installment here on the seven deadly sins.
Are you guys Catholic or something?
If the Bojo’ed One had read Part One of Wrath/Anger, which begins with the untranslated first few lines of the Iliad, they would have known that there is nothing “Catholic” about the topic of any of the so-called “seven deadly sins” other than the manner in which they were classified by monks and a pope of the Early Church...and even the Early Church was taking hints on that eventual classification from Aristotle, at the very least.
Homer (and the bards that followed him...or them), in singing about the anger of Achilles, is certainly singing, in part, about how destructive anger can be.
Confucius wrote a few things about anger, as well (I assume that these translations are correct).
A series of essays on the Hindu notions of abhimāna (pride) or the Buddhist notions of thīna (sloth) could be written; chapter 9 of the Tao Te Ching certainly deals with recognizable forms of “pride”...you get the picture.
I simply chose a culturally specific classification of...states of mind{?) to cover topics that human beings have been writing about for millennia; a classification that most of us in Western culture understands.
I might even go so far as to say that non-Catholic (and usually older than “Catholic”) accounts of...these states of mind...sometimes concede that the “seven deadly sins” can, indeed, be “deadly” in some way or another.
[After all, personal hubris is certainly just as responsible for widespread Plague and Death in 21st century America as it is in an ancient play of Sophocles, right?]
Maybe it was the entire notion of “sin” that set off the Bojo’ed One...who knows?
Anyways...after I tell you who we are and what we do here at Top Comments...back to pride.
Here at Top Comments we welcome longtime as well as brand new Daily Kos readers to join us at 10pm Eastern. We strive to nourish community by rounding up some of the site's best, funniest, most mojo'd & most informative commentary, and we depend on your help!! If you see a comment by another Kossack that deserves wider recognition, please send it either to topcomments at gmail or to the Top Comments group mailbox by 9:30pm Eastern. Please include a few words about why you sent it in as well as your user name (even if you think we know it already :-), so we can credit you with the find!
There’s a host of reasons that compelled me to begin using drugs. Here’s one I never really talk about.
I was— and am— a nerdy boy from the East Side of Detroit; someone that had no “street sense” whatever. Granted that I had a few relatives that did run the streets selling drugs or in the policy game, among other street hustles. Those relatives proved to be my favorites simply because they were less judgmental than some other relatives. (It is also important to note that these favorite relatives of mine made sure that I knew that their “professions” off-limits to me.)
I very quietly grew up romanticizing their lifestyles for various reasons.
When I came of age and left home, I finally had the space where explore the way those with “street sense” lived much in the way that an anthropologist does participant observation.
So in spite of the warnings about the effects of crack cocaine (which I’d already heard about), ad the negative effects and weird behavior that I had witnessed in my associates for months, I tried crack cocaine just to fit in and do my “research” on the society that I was increasingly seeing around me.
I convinced myself that I was doing this “research” for years.
Thinking about it nowadays, the excessive levels of pride, arrogance, and haughtiness that it takes to think of other human beings in that way; to do it as I was doing it without direction, schooling, or skill makes me sick.
It almost killed me.
So...yeah, pride kills, too, I’m pretty sure. Damned near killed me.
Pride saves, too, I’m pretty sure.
The Online Etymology Dictionary indicates that the dual meaning of “pride” has been embedded in the English language for centuries. Furthermore, from the brief glance that I’ve seen in other religions, philosophies, and cultures, most human societies note both pride’s positive aspects and its egregious excesses.
The Desert Fathers, Pope Gregory I, and, of course, Thomas Aquinas (leaving aside the discussion of “sin”) seem to have had the self-deleterious effects of excessive pride more correct than not, I suspect.
But those officials of The Church only told half the story.
In a sense, LGBTQ Pride and, yes, “Race Pride” (p.199) is not simply a necessary psychic restorative to peoples that have been “’buked and scorned.”
It’s also a needed restorative to the language, itself, along with the lives and minds that most of us occupy.
Previously in this Top Comments series:
Comments below the fold.
From Youffraita:
In my New Day Café diary today — this great reminiscence from IaniusX.
Highlighted by RethinkEverything:
In the diary by StuartEugene about the sentence handed-down today to Derek Chauvin— this comment made by DigitusImpudicus.
TOP PHOTOS
June 23rd, 2021
(NOTE: Any missing images in the Quilt were removed because (a) they were from an unapproved source that somehow snuck through in the comments, or (b) it was an image from the DailyKos Image Library which didn't have permissions set to allow others to use it.)
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo
5) Hey Matt — Have a seat! … by dmhlt 66 +9917) Complain. Loudly. by arper +7224) [image] by redstatelefty +6526) Faux news....OAN....crickets..... by dan335 +6327) Judges by Denise Oliver Velez +61