Pride before a fall.

The Power of Pride

by Alan Bisbort

July 31, 2006 - Hartford (apj.us) - The bumper stickers read "The
Power of Pride" with the blue letters following the red and white
contours of an unfurled American flag. That's all the bumper stickers
say. But what are they really saying? What makes the bearers of this
sticker so proud?

That the nation is in the hands of the most hated man on the planet,
who has dragged America's good name through the mud, a stain that
will take two generations to remove, if indeed it can be removed?

That America is always right, even when she's wrong?

Or that America is proud even when the government behaves in ways that
collectively shame us?

On the other hand, maybe the people who put it on their cars don't
think about it, or much of anything, at all. Chances are they have a
child or a loved one in uniform and this sticker is their hedge against
their being harmed, a charm to ward off evil spirits. Nearly 3,000
American families know that feeling, tens of thousands more are coming
to grips with loved ones wounded in body in spirit. And many more will
experience that unimaginable pain before we are rid of the cancer in
the White House and Congress.

In that case, one can understand their need to believe that the Liar in
Chief and his inner circle of sociopaths, megalomaniacs and enablers
are actually competent, decent, honest leaders and that what they do in
their nation's name is something about which they can take pride.
Their power of denial is almost as strong as their power of pride.

Eventually that denial-when they realize they've been lied to,
their children murdered under false pretenses-will break and all hell
will be loosed. The recent ugliness in Lebanon, which America did
nothing to prevent or, once started, to stop, will likely have only two
major impacts, both bad: Many more Americans are going to die in the
Middle East and the price of oil will rise to unprecedented levels,
causing financial ruin to millions of Americans while the Republican
Elite, their portfolios stuffed with petroleum and defense industry
stock, will line their pockets.

Still, though the power of denial is one thing, the power of pride
baffles me. Pride in small doses can be a good thing-taking pride in
your work, your appearance, etc.-as long as it's not the overriding
part of your personality. I confess to a certain amount of pride when
I've written something that raises the blood pressure of even one
right-winger, gotten him so worked up that he suffers a wave of
anxiety, usually relieved by penning an anonymous personal threat to me
or calling my house and hanging up when I answer. Likewise, my dog
feels pride, I suppose, when he's evacuated a particularly large
amount of solid fecal matter in the hated neighbor's yard. And so on.

But, no, since you asked, I am not swelled with pride about America. I
do not feel that "Power of Pride," nor do I think pride is
warranted right now. Just for the record-and to preempt all those
pride-swollen self-appointed patriots who will take exception with
this-I did feel pride for my nation at one time. I grew up, the son,
grandson and nephew of decorated U.S. Army colonels, feeling that my
country was a beacon of freedom to the world. The happiest days of my
childhood were spent on American military bases around the world. It
might indeed be that experience that has made me more sensitive to
America's failings. As Neil Young sings on his extraordinary new
album Living With War: "America is beautiful but she's got an ugly
side."

I've now lived long enough to realize why Pride (aka superbia or
hubris) is one of the Seven Deadly Sins, along with gluttony, greed,
lust, envy, anger, sloth. (Imagine someone with a bumper sticker that
reads "The Power of Sloth" or "The Joy of Envy").

Pride is, however, the all-powerful sin. It, in fact, has been called
"the father of all sins." Gluttony, for example, is thought of as
pride in one's consumption; Envy is a craving for the pride of
others; Sloth is the sin of those too proud to consider anything new;
Anger takes pride in violence; Greed takes pride in possessions and
money; Lust takes pride in sexual consumption or the desire, usually
unconsummated, for same.

According to the Bible (Proverbs 6: 16-19), God was clear on this
score: "These six things doth the Lord hate; yea, seven are an
abomination unto him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed
innocent blood, a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be
swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and
he that soweth discord among brethren."

While many definitions of pride have been tendered, Dante's might be
the best of all, and the one that most accurately describes America's
current excess, embodied by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the various
assorted pundits of the mainstream press: "love of self perverted to
hatred and contempt for one's neighbor."

Dante believed that Pride was the root of all sins. Thus, in the
Purgatorio, he showed how all souls must be purged of that sin first.
Then, they suffer diminishing horrors and punishments for the other six
deadly sins. How, then, can there not be a space in Hell already
reserved for Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Hannity, O'Reilley, Matthews,
Hume, Lieberman, Lott, et al, after their "Shock and awe" campaign
amounted to the Nazis' preemptive Blitzkrieg campaigns against
Poland, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and France? Or the
announcement of "Mission accomplished" when the mission had not
even been named? Or "Enduring freedom" for a country-no, an
entire region-now reduced to total chaos? All of these are terms of
overweening pride.

America's sin of Pride, its worship of the Power of Pride, has had
predictable results. The Pew Global Attitudes Project, which
interviewed 93,000 people in 50 countries over the past four years, has
shown the rest of the world hates the United States now and the taint
of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al., has now "trickled down" to the
rest of us. Regardless of how we feel about these criminals in power,
simply because we are Americans we are hated almost equally by
Europeans, Asians and Arabs.

As the Times of London reported, "Majorities around the world think
Americans are greedy, violent and rude, and fewer than half in
countries such as Poland, Spain, Canada, China and Russia think
Americans are honest...Few analysts expect more than marginal
improvements, short of another Sept. 11. The dislike is accelerating
among youth. The problem...is Americans, not just [President] Bush. In
increasing numbers, people around the globe resent U.S. power and
wealth and reject specific actions such as the occupation of Iraq and
the campaign against democratically elected Palestinian
leaders...America's image problem is pervasive, deep and perhaps
permanent, analysts say, an inevitable outcome of being the world's
only superpower."

The Power of Pride has pissed away 230 years of American history.

Heckuva job, Bushy!

Alan Bisbort is a columnist for the Hartford Advocate. His book, "'When
You Read This They Will Have Killed Me': The Life and Redemption of
Caryl Chessman, Whose Execution Shook America," will be published this
fall by Carroll & Graf.

SEE:
American Politics Journal - The Power of Pride
That the nation is in the hands of the most hated man on the planet,
.... embodied by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the various assorted
pundits......can there not be a space in Hell already reserved for
Bush, Cheney,
http://www.americanpolitics.com/20060731Bisbort.html

Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep,
And in his simple show he harbors treason.
- William Shakespeare, King Henry the Sixth, Part II
(Suffolk at III, i)