The Virtue of Pride

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Christianity has traditionally considered pride to be a sin, and many secular thinkers today agree that we need more humility. On the other hand, a glance at the self-help sections of bookstores reveals that pride (usually called "self-esteem") is desired by many. Moreover, educators and psychologists are concerned to raise the self-esteem of students, and patients. Various groups struggle to increase the pride of their members (e.g. "gay pride," "black is beautiful," "girl power")

I am going to use some puzzling passages in the Hebrew Bible to show that both groups are right, but about different people. Vain people need to have their self-esteem lowered; self-depreciating people need to have their self-esteem raised.

The Puzzle

Several Hebrew terms might be translated "proud." I shall focus on the figure of speech, "stiffnecked" (qesheh `oreph). Stiffnecked people are stubborn, as a mule is stubborn. They are unwilling to submit to authority; they refuse to accept a subordinate place in a hierarchy. In that sense, stiffnecked people are proud.

God calls the Israelites stiffnecked (Ex 32:9, 33:3), and then instructs Moses to use the term.

The Lord told Moses, "Say to the Israelite people, 'You are a stiffnecked people...'" (Ex 33:5)

Moses duly follows this instruction (Ex 34:9, Deut 9:6, 9:13, 10:16, 31:27).

These passages are puzzling for two reasons. First, stubbornness and refusal to accept authority are not characteristics of the escapees from Egypt. As far as we know, the Israelites accepted the authority of Pharaohs for hundreds of years without a peep until Moses arrived. Then they followed God and Moses into the unknown, and into the midst of the (Red/reed) sea without question. They accepted Moses as a leader and judge, accepted the 10 Commandments as their law and accepted Aaron as a substitute leader without protest. Later, after a discouraging report from the spies, the Israelites balked at invading the Promised Land, but when Moses told them that God wanted an invasion, they attacked the very next day (Num14:40-44, Deut 1:41-43).

God's accusation that the Israelites are stiffnecked is a response to the Golden Calf debacle, but that was not an attempt by the Israelites to go their own way, make their own rules and reject authority. Rather it was either an attempt to submit to the authority of a new god (the calf/bull was widely worshipped in the ancient Near East), or an inept attempt to reaffirm their submission to the God who brought them out of Egypt, depending on how one interprets the episode.

The Israelites have plenty of faults, but they are not stiffnecked. Why does God accuse the Israelites of being stiffnecked when there are many more apt accusations available?

The second puzzling aspect of these passages is that a stubborn refusal to accept illegitimate authority is generally considered a virtue. The Maccabees are celebrated for their rebellion, for example. Why does God accuse the Israelites of being stiffnecked when being stiffnecked to some degree is a good thing?

My Solution

A left-handed compliment is a statement which is superficially a compliment, but underneath turns out to be a criticism. God's accusation that the Israelites are stiffnecked is a left-handed criticism. It is a statement which at first glance seems to be a criticism, but upon reflection turns out to be a compliment.

Suppose that your child is timid. You could say, "Little Ferdinand, you are such a scaredy-cat! Try to take more chances." That might help, but it will reinforce Ferd's picture of himself as timid, and set him the difficult task of self-transformation. There is a more effective way; "accuse" Ferd of being courageous. The idea is to get Ferdinand to think of himself as courageous in the hope that he will live up to that self-conception. (Warning: This is a tricky maneuver which could easily backfire; don't try this at home unless you are omniscient.)

The Golden Calf episode has revealed that centuries of slavery have beaten the stubbornness and independence out of the Israelites. They don't even have enough self-esteem to wait 40 days for Moses; they are desperate to find some tangible god to follow. God accuses the Israelites of being stiffnecked in order to trick them into thinking of themselves as stiffnecked, stubbornly independent of authority, proud.

We all need a bit of tweaking. As Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Peschischa reputedly said:

Everyone must have two pockets, with a note in each pocket, so that he or she can reach into the one or the other, depending on the need. When feeling lowly and depressed, discouraged or disconsolate, one should reach into the right pocket, and, there, find the words: "For my sake was the world created." But when feeling high and mighty one should reach into the left pocket, and find the words: "I am but dust and ashes."

But some people need lots of nudges in one direction, and only a few nudges in the other. The Israelites needed a self-esteem boost because of their time as slaves. Pharaoh needed a touch of humility.

Today

People at the top of the social hierarchy with a sense of entitlement are familiar. Many of these people (though not all) need to become less proud, so those who urge humility are right insofar as they are addressing these folks.

Today, as in Biblical days, oppression lowers self-esteem. Some groups of people are currently emerging from subordination. Their self-esteem has suffered, and continues to suffer from aggression and discrimination. Like the Israelites, many of these people (though not all) need to become more stiffnecked. So those who urge pride are right insofar as they are addressing such groups.

Of course, these are not the only causes of ego-inflation and deflation, but they are common causes. In general, moderate self-esteem is the goal for all, but getting there often requires increasing the self-esteem of victims, and decreasing the self-esteem of the privileged. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.











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