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On being Proud

I get the feeling that people have lost the ability to distinguish between what they feel and what they say to express said feelings. Creates headlines from silly to outright dangerous.

Most recently a large Fortune 100 CEO declared to the world media that 'he is proud to be gay'.  Now to paraphrase Seinfeld- while there is nothing wrong with that- it does beg the question of how someone can be proud of a natural accident?  Accident in two parts - that he 'is' and that he is 'gay'.

Proud is sometimes defined as - feeling deep pleasure or satisfaction as a result of one's own achievements, qualities.  Being gay is - as one can surmise neither an achievement nor a quality.  It is an accident of nature as much as being straight is.  Nothing of it - that would be straight forward thinking.  Which if you are so inclined could under circumstances make you feel gay or happy.

Another confusion that goes into such declarations is around the idea of coming 'out' to say this.  Frankly this CEO runs a company to make smart phones whereby he could simply twit, blog or email all on a smart phone while staying indoors.  No need to come anywhere...

I don't see a lot of coming and goings on other declarations except perhaps when the English queens or princesses reproduce and the world waits with some sort of breath to hear the outcome ..  some paid lackey comes out of the palace to announce this accident.   Another event is when smoke comes out of a chimney to announce if the Catholics have a new leader.

Going back to pontificate on the topic of Pride - lions have one but that too can be ill founded if there is no meat to be had.

Another sample of misplaced pride is when people claim they are proud of their home team typically associated with a sports franchise.  Why is the citizenry proud?  What did they do other than spend exorbitant sums to be entertained at an organized sporting event?  If the team wins against another how does that make the city they represent proud?

Maybe gay but not proud.





Comments

  1. RajendraNovember 1, 2014 at 6:28 AM

    pride is mostly misplaced anyway, or mis-directed- not at the miss, but the mister.

    ReplyDelete

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