The Need For Humility
Today's American Spectator Online has a posting by Paul Beston on the lack of humility, especially on the pacisfist left, toward those who served in the military, thus securing our freedom. I agree with him for the most part but feel that he was unfair in one regard. The right can be a little arrogant at times to. (I personally do not care to listen to Rush Limbaugh, even though I usually agree with him, because his ego puts me off and even if it is just a schtick for his show, I find it distracting.)
That having been said, I consider the left far more arrogant than the right. They just point their noses in the air and consider our boorish conservative views as proof that we are not as intelligent and as enlightened as they are.
What is humility? I've always understood it to mean two things working together, the knowledge of your own limitations and recognizing the value of others and their contributions.
Arrogance is believing that others are stupid or evil because they disagree with you. Arrogance is believing that you know more than the man next to you and he should not even be allowed to question you. Even a six year old might know something that you do not and there is no shame in learning it from them, the folly is in refusing to learn.
We do indeed need a sense of humility toward those whose sacrifices made our freedom possible, and especially towards those who paid the price of life or limb, but we also need humility toward each other. This does not mean we cannot argue or disagree, but we must do so with civility and a recognition of our own fallibility. There has only been one perfect Man in history and I have no nail holes in my hands and neither do the rest of us.
That having been said, I consider the left far more arrogant than the right. They just point their noses in the air and consider our boorish conservative views as proof that we are not as intelligent and as enlightened as they are.
What is humility? I've always understood it to mean two things working together, the knowledge of your own limitations and recognizing the value of others and their contributions.
Arrogance is believing that others are stupid or evil because they disagree with you. Arrogance is believing that you know more than the man next to you and he should not even be allowed to question you. Even a six year old might know something that you do not and there is no shame in learning it from them, the folly is in refusing to learn.
We do indeed need a sense of humility toward those whose sacrifices made our freedom possible, and especially towards those who paid the price of life or limb, but we also need humility toward each other. This does not mean we cannot argue or disagree, but we must do so with civility and a recognition of our own fallibility. There has only been one perfect Man in history and I have no nail holes in my hands and neither do the rest of us.
posted by shoprat at 7:27 PM
3 Comments:
Funny you should say that. It just so happens I do have a nail hole in my hand, but that's only because I was reckless.
Sorry, I know you are being serious, but sometimes I can't help myself. I am, after all, just me, an imperfect creature, as you point out, and know that Jesus told us we should all be humble and not vie for the best seat at the table.
Humility, unfortunately, is not something that is easy to practice. We all love to believe we are right all of the time. And I am very hard on liberals and feel justified in being so; so I'm not being "humble" in that respect. I can't help it though; they are attempting to destroy my very way of life.
I like Rush Limbaugh because I do understand his ego thing is simply "schtik." And he, like me, is sick and tired of the egos of the liberals. We have to fight back, and we don't seem to be able to get anywhere with them by being humble. Sometimes he gets a bit carried away, even for me, but he does educate the public and for that I am thankful.
Very thought provoking post. Sorry to go on for so long, but as I said, it's thought provoking.
Oh... I wasn't kidding. While cleaning one of our sheds I didn't realize there was a nail in one of the boards and grabbed it so tightly that I have a nail hole in the center of my left palm. It isn't very deep though; only bled a little bit. :)
I find that most of the arrogance eminating from the political blogosphere is from the extreme left and also from the majority of the right wingers out there (you excluded, I think you are very humble). The post about liberals "destroying our very way of life" is just ridiculous. I think ultra conservatives are just as bad as far left wingers in their intolerance to opposing views. Many times if you don't completely agree with a conservative opinion, instead of debating it, the right winger just starts calling you a moron, questioning your love of the US (or how dare you use Cap for your avatar, as if you can't be a patriot unless you are a Republican). We need consensus and compromise, and the right, since they hold all the cards, is not even interested in talking to the left. They just call them tax and spend liberals. I think we should call the Republicans "borrow from our kids and grandkids future so that we can live high on the hog conservatives."
I try to learn something from every person I meet. Sometimes, the lesson learned is to just keep my mouth shut because it wont do any good to say anything. As far as our military is concerned, I grew up with it. He taught me respect.
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