Troy Headrick’s personal blog can be found at Thinker Boy: Blog & Art.
When I was growing up, there was a very common euphemism that was used when referring to those who behaved arrogantly. Such people were said to be “full of themselves.” I don’t know if folks still use this phrase or not. Today, because the average person generally spends less time beating around the bush, it is highly likely that he or she would be more direct, saying the following instead: “Arrogant people are full of shit.”
Because arrogant people are full of themselves and they are, by definition, shitty people, that makes them full of shit. I suppose I’ve just proved, using a kind of syllogistic logic, that arrogant people can be both full of themselves and shitty. Actually, they are shitty because they are very much themselves.
(You can probably tell that I really get off on playing around with language and ideas.)
I wanted to be sure to start this one off by letting you know, in no uncertain terms, what I think of arrogance and those who display it in their behavior. Today, most Americans—and I am one; at least my passport makes this assertion—are really getting schooled on arrogance because we have a president who is so effusively self-congratulatory that I actually end up either blushing or cringing every single time he speaks about any subject. Invariably, no matter the topic at hand, he’ll find some way to brag and then pat himself on the back. I find such behavior juvenile and off-putting in the extreme.
I want to pivot away from Trump and start talking about arrogance in general. It was good, though, that I began this blog with him because he is a prime example of one of the main ways arrogance negatively affects a person, so I’ll return to the subject of America’s obnoxious president very shortly.
Arrogance is not one of the Seven Deadly Sins but it should be. When we behave arrogantly we sin against ourselves and others. We sin against ourselves by believing, quite falsely, that we are the greatest. Being the greatest means that we are the most capable, the most intelligent, etc., etc., etc. It means we are superior in every way and therefore there is no one—and I mean NO ONE—who can tell us anything that we don’t already know. The arrogant see themselves as the founts of all knowledge. They see themselves as sages. They are the enlightened and the experts. Everyone should listen to what they have to say. They don’t need to open their ears, though, because there is nothing they need to hear or learn. There is no one who is capable of teaching them anything they don’t already know.
Arrogance is a form of delusion. Arrogance is the enemy of good thinking. Arrogance closes the ears and the mind and opens the mouth. But what comes from the mouth is pure braggadocio.
Arrogance is causing Trump to self-destruct. All people who behave arrogantly end up destroying themselves. They push away people and ideas they need to embrace. They worship themselves and never realize that they are nothing but false idols. I’d feel sorry for them if I didn’t despise them so much.
I’m curious to hear what you’ve thought of this piece and the arguments I’ve made here. The floor is yours…