False Pride

(Note: Originally published at my earlier blog)

interesting concept, that.

Why a post on False pride?  Because I've been accused of having it.  Oddly enough, the last person to accuse me of that same thing was my brother.

This time it was trollie.

Let's pop over to wikipedia and take a look at what they say about pride.

Pride refers to a strong sense of self-respect, a refusal to be humiliated as well as joy in the accomplishments of oneself or a person, group, or object that one identifies with.

Self respect I have. A refusal to be humiliated I have. Joy in my accomplishments I have. Not so keen on most groups, people, and objects. Usually just my work.

Ok, so I have pride.

Next they note Excesses.

"Pride" is also used to mean hubris, or excessive pride, which was usually the defining trait that leads to the tragic hero's tragic downfall according to Aristotle. This negative connotation of pride often appears in a religious context.

Excessive pride also manifests itself as arrogance, the act of obtaining rights or advantages, including vainglorious or rhetorical advantages, sometimes through violence or threat of violence, or through verbal violence.

Pride is found in someone who won’t give up and someone who refuses to settle for anything less than respect.

Hmmm. Humility is *not* among my virtues, for certain. Generally speaking, I'd have to say I meet most of those conditions. Let's take a closer look at hubris, however, as I suspect that's what's actually being said of me.

Hubris or hybris (Greek ὕβρις), according to its modern usage, is exaggerated self pride or self-confidence (overbearing pride), often resulting in fatal retribution.

Readily overbearing -- aye, I often am, especially in battles of language and decidely so on the Topix forums.

So I meet the modern form of hubris, but not the ancient classical form -- although I have, already, created my own nemesis, apparently, via my overbearing ways within the boards. So, unwititngly, I've stepped into a sort of peculiar greek tragedy.

Which reminds me, distinctly, of a previous conversation with someone in a previous thread -- though which one, I doubt I'll figure out any time soon. However, it does serve to make me aware of the fact that I have engaged them on an alternative level in some way, and that I did indeed do something to shame them.

Twice, no less.

On informing certain other people of the events of the last few days (trollie has taken it on themselves to post in the names of people with whom I have either an acquaintance or a friendship), I was taken to task for responding to them.

In its modern usage, hubris denotes overconfident pride and arrogance; it is often associated with a lack of knowledge, interest in, and exploration of history, combined with a lack of humility. An accusation of hubris often implies that suffering or punishment will follow, similar to the occasional pairing of hubris and Nemesis in the Greek world. The proverb "pride goes before a fall" is thought to sum up the modern definition of hubris.^[6]

Here is where the troll's assault on my nature fails. I have a keen interest in history, and a very thorough knowledge of it.  But, outside of that, it still holds -- with trollie acting as the nemesis and bringing about my fall.

So, not only did I gain an undersanding of the accusation, I now have some insight into the motivations behind the trollie's actions, and a least a pretty good idea of what trollie is attempting to do.

This means that trollie is religious, reasonably knowledgeable, amoral, and obssessed with me to some greatish extent.

I'm inclined to think that the use of false pride indicates a potential link to Brian, but I'm unwilling to simply cast away the subject of my own obssession with the Bill/Sopot character.

its entirely possible I'm suffering from a sort of victroy disease.  SInce most of the posters have been presenting the same arguments over and over again, I have been failing to sit back and adapt my tactics and methods.

I've even been beaten a few times of late becuase I walked into a logic trap and didn't see it coming -- charged ahead.

This is why I retreated back to the pattern of correction while I observed.

Some of the front page section, or the Business section threads I've been involved in might need to be revisited -- the debate structure in those locations is different, and may be of use to me.

Especially if adopt the new pattern I discerned that has been effective a couple of times.

Some of this will have to play out based on how the trollie responds to some of the stuff coming from those others now. I warned them, since they will be using the same connection that I am, that they will be mistaken for me --- but I suspect if they succeed in drawing the trollie out that they will find they are *most* different from myself, LOL

in the interim, much to consider, and several other posts to respond to that aren't quite as close to the bone and still have at least the joy of the challenge in them.

So yes, I'm proud. And yes, there is hubris in me. It'll have to be my cross to bear, however, as without my fury to sustain me, it's pretty much all I got left, ;)