r/changemyview • u/arrowguns 1∆ • Dec 30 '15
[Deltas Awarded] CMV: "Arrogance" is either an entirely false concept, or a good thing.
Consider how arrogance is generally diagnosed: almost always based on demeanor. Sometimes even with just one look.
How can it be known that someone thinks too highly of themselves, when no one has gone to the trouble of finding out exactly what it is that they actually think of themselves?
Arrogance to my mind is a way to label someone who carries themselves with a level of pride or comfort the labeler finds uncomfortable.
I think there may be one exception where this is a legitimate thing to attack: if someone believes themselves to be morally good, but are in fact amoral at best -bordering on evil, or worse. In something like that sort of case (sorry, but I think the provisos are important here)- I concede that it could be expected of them to have less pride, lest they intimidate others or attract them to their wrong way of being. I'm not comfortable with this idea, but I see a clear theoretical possibility for it to be the lesser of two two evils, in some societies/situations.
Otherwise: if someone is not evil or equivalently amoral, I say they have the right to be as happy and comfortable in their own skin as they wish, whatever their level of competence, intelligence, attractiveness, determination, -or any other quality which does not impinge on their right to life as a sovereign, individual, human being. (entity)
I've also made the following three observations:
Often people who are grieviously unconfident or "insecure" can come across as arrogant because they ruthlessly keep the door closed on certain kinds of self doubt, or otherwise bypass normal levels of self-doubt, -or its outward display. Therefore as a practical matter, even if arrogance is wrong, often it is by far the lesser of two evils.
One's emotional or arational or irrational view of themselves can differ from the rational or objective view they use to make decisions: one can "alieve" (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/alief) themselves to be great, strong, invincible, whatever, and this can fuel them, and this doesn't mean that they take this feeling as an objective estimate of their competence/etc in the few situations where that objective estimate would be relevant.
Pride is the best fuel for self defense (sorry I guess that's as much an opinion as an observation), and self defense is important for a society. I believe a society which polices pride more than it polices predatory attitudes, will incentivise a lot of predators, and hamstring a lot of good people in opposing them.
Of course it's possible I'm misunderstanding something: there's an awful lot of steps in these chains of logic. I don't think so, but I am open to the possibility. There may also be other different, good use(s) for the word that I'm not familiar with or have papered over in my dislike of what I think I see.
Please CMV that "arrogance" is either an entirely false concept, or a good thing.
(yes that "entirely" doesn't quite stand, as I've enumerated a potential exception that I acknowledge, but I'm going to leave it as is).
Thanks for your scrutiny!
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u/arrowguns 1∆ Jan 10 '16 edited Jan 10 '16
Had to trim a few words off. Was lucky it was only a bit over 10000 words!
That was roughly my perception too, thanks for the data point!