Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, Your Honor: You’ve all heard the charges against Pride, which we have not disputed. You’ve also heard the sorry results of following after pride. Again, there is no defense except to say that it is always a willfull act to follow after. Pride may be guilty of enticement but it is always a choice to act, to follow.
This is the sentencing phase of the trial against Pride and Pride would like for me to state some mitigating factors in his defense. The first issue is: why is it so bad to have pride? You parents, when your child achieves a good grade or shows athletic prowess, aren’t you proud of them? Don’t you tell them? And when you’ve accomplished a goal isn’t there some pride lurking around your emotions? Of course!
Isn’t the real issue in this case not the ‘badness’ of Pride but the inability or lack of desire by others to qualify and quantify pride? Pride would contend that others misuse pride to their detriment, at least his blame should be mitigated. Yes?
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There are some positive ‘attributes’ to pride but the scare about pride has contributed to the
distrust. I would contend that pride used in moderation allows us to express our feelings of success for ourselves and for others. It’s when this pride finds itself expressed in feelings of superiority that we start to have problems.
I always remember the look on my parents faces when I achieved something and this was something that motivated me to work hard to see that expression again. That’s not a misuse of pride. And my expression mirrored theirs. To me, that’s a positive use of pride.
Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Pride is/can be detrimental to ourselves and in its expression – to others. But it can also be a positive motivator – it’s all in how it’s used.
