Before a Fall?

Rather like ‘lazy days’ the broadly Christian ethos I was brought up in, which covered home, family and society, had more than a few things to say about pride. One of them, much to my surprise is a misquoute. As children in the 1970s we were often told that ‘Pride goes before a fall’ as an admonition. The actual quote is

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18)

Despite the omission of the middle part, the basis of the message is pretty much as the original writer intended. You should not take pride in things because it will make you arrogant. Other phrases like ‘blowing your own trumpet’ were similar warnings to people who might take pride in their achievements. In the Services, the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal was routinely referred to as ‘x years of undetected crime’! This was designed to stop recipients getting too boastful. The OBE was also referred to as ‘Other Buggers Efforts’!

So, as you can imagine, the inclination that any child had to take pride in their achievements was frowned upon. I was told, ‘self pride is no recommendation’. The effect is that to this day I avoid feeling too proud of anything I may have achieved, and to look for things I did wrong or could have done better instead. When people are proud of raising their families, which on the face of it seems reasonable, I just think how little influence you actually have on them. If you are proud of their positive achievements and credit your role in that, does it mean that when they do things that are bad that you should then feel ashamed? It is after all the logical conclusion.

So, there you have it. I am instantly suspicious of overt displays of pride from other people, a reason I distrust politicians and managers, and much more likely to react positively to finding out about someone’s achievements. The same goes for me, because for me to take any other position would be hypocritical.