Pride and Ignorance
Understanding Internal
Conflict in Stories
•Pride;
Virtue or Vice?
• Let’s first define virtue and vice;
• A virtue is a positive trait or quality
deemed to be morally good and thus is
valued as a foundation of principle and
good moral being. Personal virtues are
characteristics valued as promoting
collective and individual greatness. The
opposite of virtue is vice.
• Vice is a practice or a behavior
or habit considered immoral,
depraved, or degrading in the
associated society. In more minor
usage, vice can refer to a fault, a
negative character trait, a defect, an
infirmity, or merely a bad habit.
Synonyms for vice include fault,
depravity, sin, iniquity, wickedness,
and corruption.
• Pride is an inwardly directed emotion that carries
two common meanings. With a negative
connotation, pride refers to an inflated sense of
one's personal status or accomplishments, often
used synonymously with hubris.
• With a positive connotation, pride refers to a
satisfied sense of attachment toward one's own
or another's choices and actions, or toward a
whole group of people, and is a product of
praise, independent self-reflection, or a fulfilled
feeling of belonging.
• Pride is sometimes viewed as
excessive or as a vice, sometimes as
proper or as a virtue.
• While some philosophers such
as Aristotle (and George Bernard
Shaw) consider pride a
profound virtue, some
world religions consider it a sin.
• When viewed as a virtue, pride in
one's appearance and abilities is
known as virtuous pride, greatness
of soul or magnanimity, but when
viewed as a vice it is often
termed vanity or vainglory.
• Pride can also manifest itself as a
high opinion of
one's nation (national pride)
and ethnicity (ethnic pride).
• Bad Pride, or Pride that
separates:
• (Pride that blinds)
• Envy, jealousy, resentment,
greed, selfishness,
haughtiness, tyranny,
supremacy
• Excessive pride, along with low selfesteem, is an important part in
describing the human condition.
Humanistic psychology says that
pride does not adequately account
for anyone's experience, and the
idea that if pride emerges, it is
always a false front designed to
protect an undervalued self, or a
"deadlock between the overvalued
and undervalued self.”
•Actions that stem
from feelings of pride
are usually rooted in
fear; fear of losing
status or possession.
•
Several studies have shown that groups
that boast, gloat or perceive themselves
to be superior to others tend to have
low social status or be vulnerable to
threats from other groups. Claiming
that "hubristic, pompous displays of
group pride might actually be a sign of
group insecurity as opposed to a sign of
strength," and those that express pride
by humbly focusing on members' efforts
and hard work tend to have high social
standing.
• In contrast, those groups that
expressed pride by humbly
focusing on members' efforts and
hard work tended to have high
social standing in both the public
and personal eyes. Think of
Martin Luther King Jr., Oprah, or
Cesar Chaves.
• Vanity can refer to an excessive or
irrational belief in one's own
abilities or attractiveness in the
eyes of others and may in so far
be compared to pride. The term
Vanity originates from the Latin
word vanitas meaning emptiness,
untruthfulness, futility, foolishnes
s and empty pride.
• Here empty pride means a fake
pride, in the sense of vainglory,
unjustified by one's own
achievements and actions, but
sought by pretense and appeals to
superficial characteristics. Vanity
originally referred not to obsession
with one's appearance, but to the
ultimate fruitlessness of man's
efforts in this world.
•Think of the
expression, “He
tried his best, but
his efforts were all
in vain.”
• Hubris:
• From ancient Greek, means
extreme pride or arrogance. Hubris
often indicates a loss of contact
with reality and an overestimation
of one's own competence or
capabilities, especially when the
person exhibiting it is in a position
of power. Basically, they have gone
from great power to scared jerk.
• In its modern use, hubris denotes
overconfident pride and arrogance; it is
often associated with a lack of humility,
though not always with the lack of
knowledge.
• An accusation of hubris often implies that
suffering or punishment will follow, similar
to the occasional pairing of hubris and
nemesis in Greek society. The proverb
"pride goes before a fall" is thought to
summate the modern use of hubris.
• It is also referred to as "pride that blinds", as
it often causes one accused of hubris to act in
foolish ways that belie common sense. In
other words, the modern definition may be
thought of as, "that pride that comes just
before the fall". More recently, in his twovolume biography of Adolf Hitler, historian Ian
Kershaw uses both 'hubris' and 'nemesis' as
titles. The first volume, 'Hubris', describes
Hitler's early life and rise to power. The
second, 'Nemesis' gives details of Hitler's role
in the Second World War, and concludes with
his fall and suicide in 1945.
• Nemesis:
• In Greek mythology, Nemesis was the
spirit of divine retribution against those
who succumb to hubris (arrogance
before the gods). The Greeks personified
vengeful fate as a remorseless goddess:
the goddess of revenge. The
name Nemesis is related to
the Greek word [némein], meaning "to
give what is due".
•But is justice
always served?
• Good Pride, or Pride that
validates: (pride that binds)
• Confidence, competence,
ambition, ability, strength
• In psychological terms, good pride is
"a pleasant, sometimes exhilarating,
emotion that results from a positive
self-evaluation". It was added to the
University of California’s “Set of
Emotion Expressions” in 2009, as one
the four "self-conscious" emotions
known to have physically
recognizable expressions (along
with embarrassment,
joy, and shame)
• Pride as a motivator:
• Pride involves exhilarated pleasure and a
feeling of accomplishment. It is related to
"more positive behaviors and outcomes in
the area where the individual is proud".
• Pride is generally associated with positive
social behaviors such as helping others and
outward promotion. Along with hope, it is
also often described as an emotion that
helps us become ready for some
performance or test.
• Think of warriors who pump themselves up for a
battle! Their leader will try to instill confidence
and justification to get them committed to the
greater good.
• It may also help enhance the quality and
flexibility of the effort expended. Pride can have
the positive benefits of enhancing creativity,
productivity, and altruism. For instance, it has
been found that in terms of school achievement,
pride is associated with a higher GPA in low
neighborhood socioeconomic environments,
whereas in more advantaged neighborhoods,
high pride was associated with a lower GPA.
• Do “Good Pride” and “Bad Pride”
have anything in common, or are
they unrelated?
• Are you ready for the
awesome paradox?!
•As an audience/reader,
pride is what makes us
care for the protagonist
and makes us root for
them! We want them to
rise up to the challenge.
• This is where the term
“Excessive Pride” comes
into play.
• Once our protagonist
attains greatness, they just
don’t know when to quit.
•But wait! If they don’t
know when to quit,
doesn’t that make the
tragedy one of
ignorance instead of
pride?
•Yes and No
•This type of trouble
makes up the majority
of tragic stories; the mix
of both ignorance and
pride.
• The word Nemesis originally meant the
distributor of fortune, neither good nor
bad, simply in due proportion to each
according to what was deserved.
Then, nemesis came to suggest the
resentment caused by any disturbance of
this right proportion, the sense of justice
which could not allow it to pass
unpunished. Many connect the name
with "to feel a just resentment".
• In the Greek
tragedies, Nemesis appears
chiefly as the avenger of
crime and the punisher
of hubris, and was sometimes
called "Adrasteia", probably
meaning "one from whom
there is no escape".
• Wait a doggone minute, Mr.
Rice.
• What if the protagonist can’t
actually “WIN” in the conflict?
• Do we still root for them and
feel that they have been
victorious if they tried their
best?
• These types of stories are not regular
tragedies. They are the fine line between
Tragedy and Comedy.
• These movies: Braveheart, Gladiator,
Sparticus, Valkarie, the Jack Bull, and others,
are designed to motivate the audience/reader
to action and appreciation.
• So we are being pumped up and we feel… you
guessed it, Proud of those who stood their
ground and did the right thing.
• Thus, it is the protagonists’ humility that
redeems them in our eyes.
•Ignorance
•Perhaps the most tragic
stories of all are so
heartbreaking because
the protagonist(s) fall
because of ignorance.
•Remember the Twilight
Zone episode we
watched. He wasn’t a
proud man at all. The
tragedy was purely due
to ignorance.
• Ignorance is a state of being uninformed
(lack of knowledge). The word ignorant is
an adjective describing a person in the
state of being unaware but is often used
as an insult to describe individuals who
deliberately ignore or disregard
important information or facts. This is
actually someone who is willfully
ignorant.
• This is ironic, as people who misuse the
term are showing their own ignorance.
• Individuals with superficial
knowledge of a topic or subject
may be worse off than people
who know absolutely nothing.
As Charles Darwin observed,
"ignorance more frequently
begets confidence than does
knowledge."
• Ignorance can stifle learning, in
that a person who falsely believes
he or she is knowledgeable will not
seek out clarification of his or her
beliefs, but rather rely on his or her
ignorant position. They may also
reject valid but contrary
information, neither realizing its
importance nor understanding it.
•So, Captain Rice,
what the crap does
this have to do with
our short stories!?
• Watch your mouth!
Internal conflict when the story is a comedy:
• If the protagonist overcomes
their ignorance then they
become enlightened in our eyes.
• If the protagonist overcomes
their pride (fear, anger, doubt,
jealousy, resentment, etc), then
they gain integrity in our eyes.
If your story is a Comedy,
• Ask yourself,
• If the problem is ignorance, at what
cost will your protagonist gain
knowledge and/or ability?
• If the problem is pride, at what cost
will your protagonist learn from their
proud actions?
Internal conflict when the story is a Tragedy:
• If the protagonist overcomes their
ignorance but not their pride then
they are morally fallen in our eyes.
I call these bitter tragedies.
• If the protagonist overcomes their
pride in time, but not their
ignorance, then they become
a martyr in our eyes.
I call these inspirational tragedies.
If your story is a Tragedy,
•
•
•
•
Where will your protagonist fail?
Lack of knowledge (ignorance)
Lack of ability (inspirational tragedy)
Lack of desire, or misplaced values (pride)
That’s All Folks!
• Thank you for participating in our
Internal Conflict training.
• We are about to land so make
sure you flotation device is in the
upright position in case we need
to swim to sea.