I Have a Problem with Being Proud
There are many times I’ve been proud of myself in my life. I was proud of myself when I got high test scores. I was proud of myself when I landed certain jobs and when I got promoted. I was proud of myself when I got published in certain publications. I was proud because I felt I had accomplished something through my own hard work.
But I’ll also say that in school, I was a “smart” kid, a smart kid who subconsciously looked down on people who weren’t in advanced classes. It wasn’t until my 30's that I realized that these smarts were somewhat meaningless. I learned I had so much more to learn and unlearn. Landing those jobs and getting published were nice, but the best part of those things were the processes that got me there, not the accomplishment itself.
When pride turns into supremacy, we need to start asking questions. When Joe Biden said “America is back”, I imagined a bunch of American flags that had been knocked down rising up to drop more bombs on countries and overthrow governments, just with less criticism.
I never understood patriotism — the idea that America was the “best” country in the world, the idea that I needed to be a “proud American.” Why does anyone want to be the best country? Why can’t all countries be great? How have borders served to divide us? This was so confusing to me. I’ve also noticed similar rhetoric with…
