Pride is Bullshit

     I can explain this from 2 perspectives: The christian perspective and the atheist perspective.
     First off, Christianity and the Christian God, just for the sake of thoroughness, both consider pride and the proud wrong. Period, end of story. In fact, you are considered an abomination and you WILL be punished. So if you're Christian and proud of anything you have or are then congratulations, you're a bad Christian and the bible says things about you that are more hurtful than I would say.
    Now for the atheist perspective. Let's start by looking up the definition. Pride is defined as an excessively high opinion of oneself; Pleasure or Satisfaction in something you've done or something that belongs to you.
    Before I go on, here's a question I want you to answer to yourself now: Can you be proud of something you are given for nothing? I say no, you can't be proud of something you haven't earned. If a random person randomly gives me a million dollars, I'm not going to feel proud of that. The proper sensation to feel in response to such an event is thankfulness. One is not likely to be proud of being handed a fortune, although one might be proud to have earned one them self. Right?
    I still call rubbish because I believe everything you have or don't have, everything you are or are not, everything that makes you who you are all comes down to chance. So let me rephrase my earlier question. If you got really lucky in a game of roulette and walked out of the casino with a million dollars, would you feel proud or lucky? Unless you think it's all because of the psychic skills you've been honing in your spare time, the proper sensation is to feel lucky.
    Let's create a fictional person we'll call Prince. Prince is male, white, perfectly healthy, has above average intelligence and is good looking. His loving parents are healthy too, physically and psychologically. They both have jobs that pay loads and give them lots of benefits including a very flexible schedule to be with Prince whenever he's in need. Prince is sent to good schools and he excels because he just happens to be genuinely interested in the material and he takes real pleasure in succeeding academically. Because of his straight A's and his parents money, he can go to any school. This kid is set up to succeed right from the start. In addition to all that, because of his natural kindness he's easy to get along with making him an even better prospective mate.
    Now, let's make another fictional character who we'll call Pauper. To start with, Pauper happens to be female, black, and just for funzies, let's also make her gay. Pauper was born into a dysfunctional home. Her dad has a drug problem and he's physically and emotionally abusive to Pauper. Her mom gets sick and dies when Pauper is only 6. Her dad collects welfare and relies on the public school system to giver her free meals. She's generally sad and lonely which keeps her from feeling good about herself and she's hungry all the time, so she can't focus in class. Pauper's life could go ever further south, but let's say she manages a to work really hard at two jobs and after completing high school with average grades she goes to college. Then she gets a good job in her field of choice, medicine. She should feel proud of how much she had to overcome to get to be where she is right?
    No, here's what to consider. There are lots of Princes who don't succeed and lots of Paupers who do. So what's in their heads anyway? Your nature has a lot to do with it as well as what stimuli you're exposed to. Some people naturally have a lot less patience, kindness, courage, and/or intelligence. Some people have issues with drive, motivation, and discipline. Some people have what they might call an "addictive personality" to explain their issues with drugs or even poor time management. Why do some people who earn minimum wage spend a hefty portion of it on cigarettes and others do not? Why do some rape victims become stronger and others become hermits?  
     Here's where I'm going: WE ARE NOT ALL EQUAL*. You didn't decide what gets put in your mind. Look at it physiologically. The neurons and neural passages in your head can not be rearranged on command. They are arranged over many years. All your strengths and weaknesses are more or less fixed. You don't decide what intangible assets or other resources you get. You don't choose what influences you will have, good or bad. You don't choose what experiences you get to have and how they effect you. DNA. All these things contribute to the arrangement of your neurons which is what makes you you. In reality, you have so little willful, purposeful control of how it happens while all the major parts happens. You can't be proud of chance. You can't be proud of anything at all.

    On an unrelated note, as I child I always felt that adults were using Thanksgiving as a time of year to make me feel bad about myself because, as it seemed to me, they kept telling me that I wasn't thankful or thankful enough for what I had and I believed them. I still resent it somewhat to this day.

*Although we should treat one another as equals.