Killing Pride

I recently heard Henry Rollins talking about his life arc and various career successes and how he achieved them:

That reminded me of this article from a few years back, and in particular the embedded Penn Jillette quote, and I pondered how much further our culture has strayed from the notions of hard work, persistence in the face of obstacles, and the celebration of success in the five-plus years since I first lamented the demise of pride in personal effort and success.

Originally published at The Roots of Liberty October 2016. Lightly edited here.

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I caught a recent interview between magician Penn Jillette and libertarian journalist Nick Gillespie (and broke my no-listening rule because I wanted to hear Jillette’s thoughts on Trump, given his extensive first-hand contact with him). The interview ranges far and wide, from the presidential election to questions about truth to Jillette’s weight loss, to Bob Dylan, and is as interesting as just about every Penn Jillette interview (i.e. very). One statement that caught my ear was this comment:

There are statements that, upon first contact, make us nod our heads in agreement and get our mental gears turning. As far as quotes go, I won’t place it in any pantheon, but it is nevertheless a keeper (and meme-able). I’ve written before about the satisfaction to be found in making something and about the pleasure to be found in work itself, so I share Penn’s idea regarding taking pride in things that are difficult.

The advancement of the human condition has always been about making things easier. From the wheel to the steel plow to the light bulb to the transistor, invention improves productivity. We innovate so that we can produce more wealth with less effort, so that we can live better lives and provide better lives for our families. In doing so, we enable ourselves to pursue new challenges and new innovations. We are, unfortunately, screwing all this up in modern society.

Throughout most of human history, we’ve made things easier by working hard. This may read paradoxical, but as Thomas Edison noted, genius is 99% perspiration. If you want to invent a machine to replace the work of 100 laborers, you are very likely to invest a lot of time and effort. If you want to bend a note like BB King, you’ll have to practice, practice, practice. If you want to field ground balls like Ozzie Smith, you have to spend countless hours working at it. If you want to help create the next supercomputer, you’re going to have to study and learn a lot first. If you want to type 90 words a minute, you’re first going to have to learn to type 10 words a minute.

Despite its membership in the Seven Deadly Sins, pride is a Good Thing. Well, let me qualify that. Pride in achievement is a Good Thing. The sort of pride that is condemned (correctly so) is boastfulness or arrogance. The difference between good pride and bad pride is the difference between inward and outward. Beholding the well-crafted birdhouse you made with your own hands with a sense of pride is Good, strutting like a peacock about it and denigrating others’ birdhouses is Bad.

This is nothing new. What is new is how we’ve changed the nature of effort vs reward. There have arisen misguided notions that good pride can be instilled with praise rather than engendered by experience, and that hurt feelings are more important than the life lessons taught by failure.

Children nowadays get participation trophies so they don’t feel left out at awards ceremonies. Younger children in some schools and athletic programs play games in which no score is kept. Academic standards are lessened so kids don’t feel bad about doing poorly. Physical requirements for jobs like firefighter are diluted so that some social justice goals can better be met. While critics of affirmative action and other quota schemes have long pointed out that it can undermine individuals’ sense of achievement and legitimacy, what society is doing nowadays goes way beyond that. We tell others that they don’t really have to try very hard in order to be considered “successful” at something. We also credit fruitless effort - effort without success or achievement - far too much, as if the effort itself is as good as success. What pride of achievement is there to be garnered in any of this?

Success breeds success. If you overcome a difficult obstacle or master a difficult skill, you can not only take legitimate pride and satisfaction in your achievement, you might be less averse to taking on the next difficult challenge. If, on the other hand, you’ve never beaten any real challenge, whence the motivation to take one on in the future? In coddling, in dumbing standards down, in eliminating competition and reducing the risk of failure, and in applauding the mere spinning of wheels, we kill people’s spirit. We take away the life lessons that motivate. We kill pride. We end up with a sad, drab and lifeless society, where lethargy, laziness, apathy and entitlement reign supreme. In killing pride, we kill our society. Think about that next time someone shows you a participation trophy.

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