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Wed 24 Mar, 2010 05:19 pm
Let me tell you this true story I remember from a few years ago. While riding on the Chicago "L" train from Downtown, I asked my uncle Sean, a Chicago native, where the notorious "Cabrini Green" projects were located. My (take my word for it) pretentious, arrogant, bombastic, always wanting to show off his "knowledge" Uncle Gleen quickly interjects before Sean can answer, saying "Southside." Yes, everybody and their dog knows that the "Southside" of Chicago is "bad." After this ignorant reply, Sean calmly says "No actually." "Oh really?" Gleen says, doing his best not to swallow his pride. "Its actually on the North side."
Now, even considering that he is very prideful and always wants to impress people, I don't understand how this upper class suburban white man of 40 tried to appear as if he had "street knowledge," if you will, even though he had no real unique knowledge of Chicago ghettos, let alone Minneapolis ghettos(The city his suburb resides outside of.)
I'm very curious how and why pride will make us act like we know about places,ideas, and concepts even when we know that we have not the slightest idea about them.
@LittleMathYou,
Cabrini Green was actually on Chicago Avenue, right beside what was then the Montgomery Ward Corporate Offices, a portion of which were used by volunteers to tutor Cabrini children.
@LittleMathYou,
Too much pride leads to boastfulness.
@LittleMathYou,
What you seem to be talking about is MAS (
Male Answer Syndrome). It is a question for psychology.
@LittleMathYou,
There is pride ,and there is false pride. Pride is a good thing ,pride in our work,pride in our children etc. False pride arises from our sense of self esteem. It is a faulty tool we use to appear to have worth when we feel we have little. It doesn't work very well, humility works much better. We seldom recognise this, possible because pride seems an action, while humility is passive. We feel as though we need do something to allay our discomfort.
@Pyrrho,
That syndrome doesn't seem to be legitimate, though I agree it's a question for psychology.
I know people that do this, I'm not sure it has as much to do with trying to impress or being prideful as it does with not realizing that many of the things people say with conviction are false. In other words they believe things to easily. I think we all do it to some extent, we have some heuristic that quickly decides whether something is reliable or not. One of these is probably whether the information fits our preconceptions or not.
@Jebediah,
Jebediah;143575 wrote:That syndrome doesn't seem to be legitimate, though I agree it's a question for psychology.
I know people that do this, I'm not sure it has as much to do with trying to impress or being prideful as it does with not realizing that many of the things people say with conviction are false. In other words they believe things to easily. I think we all do it to some extent, we have some heuristic that quickly decides whether something is reliable or not. One of these is probably whether the information fits our preconceptions or not.
Yes, that is one side of it. My brother and I often have differing memories of the same event. The rest of it, I agree ,is a question for phsycology
@Jebediah,
Jebediah;143575 wrote:That syndrome doesn't seem to be legitimate, though I agree it's a question for psychology.
I know people that do this, I'm not sure it has as much to do with trying to impress or being prideful as it does with not realizing that many of the things people say with conviction are false. In other words they believe things to easily. I think we all do it to some extent, we have some heuristic that quickly decides whether something is reliable or not. One of these is probably whether the information fits our preconceptions or not.
It is a joke. However, it does bring to mind,
many a true word is said in jest, or, as it is rendered in Shakespeare, "Jesters do oft prove prophets." (Stated by Regan in
King Lear, Act V, Scene III.) The earliest version appears to be from
Chaucer. But I digress; it is a joke, whether it contains any truth or not.
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