Pride as a Virtue

The enlightened, view pride as a virtue and is considered a "moral ambitiousness," (See Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand) because it demands that an individual is to live up to one's ideals. Without pride as a fundamental principle the individual has no means of taking the necessary steps required to achieve self-esteem; therefore pride is a moral principle of valuing one's self. Each individual has a profound need for self-esteem therefore pride as a fundamental principal is essential, in order to achieve a robust self-esteem, grounded in the facts of reality. A healthy self-esteem is not something people can achieve automatically or easily.

Throughout history, many ethical codes have been quick to condemn pride as a "deadly sin," worthy of eternal torture; they have engendered guilt in their followers by demanding compliance with the moral ideals of their religious doctrines which are all incompatible with life, happiness and reality. Religions have developed such ethical codes and moral ideals that run contrary to the real needs of human being; these ethics make humility a virtue. Humility is the belittling of one's own actions, character and ability, which is detrimental to one's own mental health. Take for example, the Christian ethics, which hold humility as the principle that encourages the faithful to despise their own lives, reality and to sacrifice themselves to others, and the Church. The virtue of humility exalts guilt, which brings death to self-esteem, which in turn transforms, a healthy human being into walking zombie.

The advocates of humility characterize pride in terms of boasting and vanity. But the objective pride of the illuminati is founded and rooted in a rational recognition of all facts in their proper context, and do not involve boasting and vanity. Illuminati do not have pride in any particular trait such as physical beauty, out of its proper context or the unmerited admiration for oneself. Pride as a virtue, does not entail the false exaggeration of one's worth; which is self-deception at best, as that is harmful to the self. In essence, the critics of pride characterize a healthy trait in terms of an unhealthy distortion of it when they treat it as boasting and vanity. This is like attacking those who choose to exercise and eat healthy diets simply because some people distort dieting control by claiming it leads to anorexia. It is an unrealistic and dishonest condemnation similar to the justified pride of a person taking credit for his accomplishments vs. the empty and unmerited posturing of a braggart.

How can we justify our regarding Self-esteem as a value? Ayn Rand already did a fine job when she described self-esteem as "one's inviolate certainty that his mind is competent to think and his person is worthy of happiness, which means, worthy of life." Therefore Self-esteem is a positive self-assessment in terms of one's worthiness and one's competency. These two forms of positive self-assessment are the aim of the virtue of pride. As such, pride as a virtue seeks to encourage the individual to seek a positive assessment of one's actions, i.e. self-esteem in one's competency, and grants a reward of oneself to the self as the originator of any and all positive, innovative actions, i.e. in one's worthiness. The result of pride makes a person able to look at one's accomplishments and say both "I did that" and "it is good."

Pride demands a commitment to achieving a positive but honest assessment of oneself in the full context of one's life, and offers two essential perspectives: looking at one's past and hope of a future. By looking at past accomplishments one has an objective earned appreciation of one self, and motivates one to commitment and success in the future

Its is, therefore, justified and right for a person to take credit and feel pride for one's specific achievements, to take time and reward oneself by recognizing oneself with either "I did it," or "This is good" and the feeling of pride in one's own accomplishments. It is not boasting nor vanity but merely taking credit, as a self-accomplished being, and for simply being who one is, in both character and personal intellectual development.

To have a healthy orientation toward the future, pride is an essential tool for enhancing one's self-esteem, for being worthy of life, for building one's character; all of which are essential to mental health. Without pride, it is hard and almost impossible to strive for moral and therefore existential improvement, with oneself as the beneficiary; which simply means that pride is justified by default since one has a responsibility to develop a healthy robust self-esteem.

An illuminati is not a person who waits for others to fulfill his dreams for him, nor does he restrict his aspirations to what others demand but is a person of pride and as such a person of integrity and good character. Such a person has the right to experience self-esteem and take credit, and feel proud because such a person is an achiever, a person worthy of admiration.