Pride

A friend and I were talking about the seven deadly sins the other day. As a nonbeliever, he even found the bad element in these "sins" to be valid. Needless to say, he was surprised when I said, "Um, I don't think pride is a bad thing."

Pride is all too often associated with stubbornness, arrogance, and conceitedness. If we are talking this type of pride, then I agree with my friend: Pride is not a good thing. But, for me, and for my good buddy Nietzsche, pride means something completely different and need not be associated with the above terms.

I think pride primarily deals with one's sense of self-worth, the feeling that one means something in this world, that in a group of people, one has something to add or bring to the table. This is the healthy, life enhancing type of pride that I think we all need, to some extent. This sense of pride can be perverted, but this reason is not enough to call pride a vice. In its healthy form, pride is very much a virtue.