The stuff about PRIDE

Lets start by defining the term pride

"a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements, the achievements of one's close associates, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired."

Over here, we are not really going to be broad about the definition of proudness, rather, we are taking only the part of it. "a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from achievement of one's close associates".

People are proud of almost anything and everything these days. Nation, religion, caste, land, national flag, color of pajaymas, culture, Asharam Bapu, floor color, desktop wallpaper and what not.

Some pride are OK. Some are (very) dangerous. Very Dangerous. Make a person proud of his city or state and he will be totally convinced to throw a man out of running train. Make a man proud of his religion, and he will do whatever it takes to get a masjid or mandir from dome to trash, using just a hammer. Make him proud of his maleness, and he will beat the shit out of his wife for asking him to come early at home. Pride breed intolerance.

How do we check whether our pride is OK Dokey and acceptable?  Here is what I do. Don't be proud of anything you haven't achieved or worked for. I just gave you a golden formula for resisting yourself to be a anti-social element!

Lets talk about the pride of nationality or religion. Is  being a Maharashtrian or a North Indian Bhramin or a Muslim something to be proud of?

Toss a coin. What comes up? Heads? Ask yourself, "Is getting a heads something to be proud of?". Sounds stupid?

You should not be proud of something you were born with (like you kidney, 10(or 11 or 12) fingers, your nurse hairstyle, your height, etc.). You never had a chance to *select or earn* any-of the thing. You were just born!!. Randomness? Evolution at work?

You have to be proud of something you earned yourself.

The tag of Marathi, Bhramin or for that case any other thing, is not what you earned, but something your parents gave you which was given to them by their parents and so on.

And as far as Marathi, White, American, Sunni, Brahmin etc. are considered, these are nothing but (now) useless social constructs.

To end this up, here is something George Carlin said on the stuff of Pride

"Pride should be reserved for something you achieve or obtain on your own, not something that happens by accident of birth. Being Irish isn't a skill... it's a fucking genetic accident. You wouldn't say I'm proud to be 5'11"; I'm proud to have a pre-disposition for colon cancer."