Pride is a particularly interesting characteristic of our human experience. It is a double-edged sword with an ambivalent effect in our daily occurrences — too much of it will lead to arrogance, too little will lead to inhibition. Yet where does pride come from? It does not emerge purely from the depths of our souls, but rather, is always rooted on something. It need not be material to begin with, but pride is possible solely as a byproduct of comparison. One can be proud of their achievements, possessions or capacities only if they can be compared to someone else’s. “Rich,” “smart,” “strong,” “fast,” “kind,” “good” — all of these adjectives are relative. You are strong exclusively because someone is not; you can only be slow if someone is faster than you. As there cannot be light without darkness, there cannot be good without bad. Call it a property of physics or a linguistic necessity, much of the descriptive terminology we employ simply denotes the difference between things. It is in this difference where pride sparks.
