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JuliaS-SecondPaper 14 - 21 Apr 2008 - Main.JuliaS
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The Pride Placebo | | | We generally think of emotions as reactions. Something good happens, and it causes you to become joyous. There is no cognitive step in between; that is, you do not (typically) pause, reflect and then decide to feel joy. But pride is somehow different. While it may be true that occasionally we do feel immediate, unexamined pride, there is also a sense in which pride is self-referential. That is to say, pride is often the result of internal evaluation, the deliberate operation of a complex self-conscious. I am proud of myself because I have considered my achievements and decided that they merit commendation. That consideration may have taken place long ago, in which case the pride I feel upon achievement may seem automatic. Yet even this ostensibly immediate pride still stems from a deliberate cognition. Consider our linguistic construction of the phrase “to pride oneself”. Its a reflexive speech-act, the subject of conscious acting on the object of self. Understanding pride in this way is key to understanding its utility. Because of its reflexive, cognitive nature, pride can be deliberately and internally caused. Thus, pride can be harnessed as a tool. | |
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< | When Nikki Giovanni affirmed our identity as a community, she triggered our cognitive pride mechanism, and the prophecy fulfilled itself. We sat up a little taller, we wept a little less, and we prided ourselves on our virtues. It didn't matter that we, all forty thousand of us collectively, have little in common except our football team; and it didn't matter that most of us, who watched passively from a distance as the events unfolded on television, had done nothing to be proud of. It didn't matter because the real force of Giovanni's words had nothing to do with their content. She reminded us that we still had something to believe in, and gave us the traction we needed to begin our long climb back to life. We wear it on our t-shirts, and we repeat it like a pslam - We are Virginia Tech - not as a declaration to the rest of the world, but as a reminder to ourselves. Though it's apostasy for me to say so, deep down we all know, that the phrase and the pride are empty. But we wear it anyway, and in doing so, we make it come true. | >
> | When Nikki Giovanni affirmed our identity as a community, she triggered our cognitive pride mechanism, and the prophecy fulfilled itself. We sat up a little taller, we wept a little less, and we prided ourselves on our virtues. It didn't matter that we, all forty thousand of us collectively, have little in common except our football team; and it didn't matter that most of us, who watched passively from a distance as the events unfolded on television, had done nothing to be proud of. It didn't matter because the real force of Giovanni's words had nothing to do with their content. She reminded us that we still had something to believe in, and gave us the traction we needed to begin our long climb back to life. We wear it on our t-shirts, and we repeat it like a psalm - We are Virginia Tech - not as a declaration to the rest of the world, but as a reminder to ourselves. Though it's apostasy for me to say so, deep down we all know, that the phrase and the pride are empty. But we wear it anyway, and in doing so, we make it come true. | | | \ No newline at end of file |
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| Revision 14 | r14 - 21 Apr 2008 - 17:37:12 - JuliaS |
| Revision 13 | r13 - 18 Apr 2008 - 09:04:15 - JuliaS |
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