I would like to think aloud over the arrogance part over here.
We in India have been always taught how not to be boastful, how your work should speak for itself, how it is bad manners if not anything else to be self praising. The western culture ( inferred from the few people I have met, from many series that I have watched and the direction in which India is going in terms of human behaviour when they say westernization) on the other hand prescribes individuality, freedom and presentation. Sell yourself and be self reliant.
Where does self reliance come in? I think the arrogance and self reliance are related. I think by nature we humans are animals and hence all wish to be alpha males. Survival and other secondary factors have led us to become civilized and share costs and benefits with fellow humans. We naturally are aggressive and self contained but this need to stay together and compromise and sacrifice has made us pay this 'cost' of toning ourselves down on the arrogance quotient. So you are allowed to be arrogant as long as you add more value than you take away by being a boast.
Real example of Steve Jobs and fictional ones of House M.D. and Sherlock Holmes are relevant here.
Anyways, from this globe to what it means to me. Do I want to be arrogant or confident? There is a bad and a good connotation to them respectively right?
Like all things in life I feel that that it is a decision of where do I want to be in the bipolar continuum ranging from a self obsessed, boastful jerk to a too humble, spineless shy insect. Ok good enough foreplay for an awesome introspection session ahead..rest of this in my diary now ... :)
From the net somewhere:
Arrogance without humility is a recipe for high-concept irrelevance; humility without arrogance guarantees unending mediocrity. Figuring out how to be arrogant and humble at once... is the problem...
Comments