Pride or Fall?

by William Amir

I want to ask the question; Do we have too much pride for our own good?

When a famous Russian general was asked why Hitler lost World War Two, he replied: “Hitler never listened to his generals, and he never learnt from his mistakes”. Hitler had too much pride to listen to others. So he fell far. Stalin was the same, but later decided to start listening to his wise generals.

Is this with all dictators, or a select few? And could it happen to us? Because many people have far too much pride, and sometimes don’t listen to others. So many people need to listen to advice, instead of giving it.

But does this pride make us human?

It was the thing that would have helped us through the Stone Age. When the Neanderthals wanted food, they probably would have attacked animals much bigger than themselves (like Mammoths).
It would have helped them be brave.

It could have also helped with society. If you had lots of pride, you would have regarded yourself as something special. Then the people who didn’t have so much pride would follow you, because they needed a role model.

Is pride good or bad? It is neither; when you need to lead a group, you need a lot of pride, so others can believe in you. But, when you are not the one leading the group, ignore your pride, and help out.
If you have pride too much, people will think you are full of yourself, stuck up or just plain rude.

You need pride to be brave and headstrong and successful. But don’t always be proud; you also need to listen, or you will never learn anything.


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