People may not want to read about arrogance, especially considering the massive ego we now have in the White House. And I'm sure people won't, because...well, I'm not exactly blowing up here. But I needed a topic and I figured this would be as good as any. Plus, it has a fairly attention-grabbing title! Anyway, this is just a thought that occurred to me that I figured I might as well write about. It's something I know I need to work on in my life, which makes this VERY hypocritical, but I think it's still of interest. Anyway, what I want to write about is the importance of arrogance, and why it's not always a bad thing.
Obviously, arrogance is seen as bad; a term with more positive connotations is 'confidence.' But honestly, I feel like arrogance describes what I'm talking about a little better, because what I'm talking (writing, talking, whatever) about isn't just confidence. Personally, I see confidence as being relate to the self. For me, confidence is saying what you think and respecting yourself enough not to have your self-esteem crushed if what you say isn't received well. Confidence is the people who dance when no one else is because even if they look ridiculous to the people around them, they're having fun and loving life and that's all that matters. Confidence is being able to love yourself even when people are annoyed or downright furious with you, because you know that what they think doesn't matter.
What I'm referring to is confidence that what you have to say can make a difference. It's confidence that you know something or have some experience that can change someone's life, or even the whole world. It's the confidence not just to say what you think, but the confidence to push it forward because you believe that what you say and do can make a difference to other people. And that seems like more than confidence. Perhaps it isn't arrogance either; I'm no linguist. But I figured arrogance would be more eye-catching, so here we are!
Plus, it seems just a little arrogant to me. It seems arrogant to say that what you're saying is the truth, that you're in the right and anyone who doesn't share your view is in the wrong. It seems arrogant to assume that one person's mind can imagine something capable of changing the life or mind of another self-aware, independent human being, let alone an entire society full of them.
But that's how people have changed the world. And yes, you could say that about the assholes of the world as well, all the Hitlers and the Stalins. But some of the greatest change in human history (hell, probably all of it) has come from people with the arrogance to believe they were right when so many others thought they were wrong. In the 1500s, Copernicus went against the Roman Catholic Church (not only a large governing body at the time, but also the source of most of civilized Europe's moral code) to say that the planets went around the sun, not the earth. Fredrick Douglass, on the Fourth of July in 1852, spoke in front of white America and lambasted them with derision and sarcasm for the utter hypocrisy of celebrating white freedom while keeping black slaves, for touting liberation while promoting the opposite. And just a few years ago, a bullet to the head and the threat of the Taliban didn't stop Malala Yousafzai from speaking out and saying that women deserve education. And while that's not so radical in America, she came from the Middle East, where in some places women don't even have full freedom to choose what they wear.
Obviously, Rome wasn't built in a day. Change doesn't happen immediately or even quickly. But I think it's incredibly important to be arrogant enough to think "Yeah, I can make a difference." After all, that's the kind of thinking that get things done. True, it's not easy to do that. I know I don't do it often, which, again, makes this all pretty hypocritical. But without that arrogance, people who really can make a difference don't speak up. So at the very least, I want to give a nod to arrogance, and anyone arrogant enough to make or have made a positive change in the world. And while I might not speak up about a whole lot, and I shouldn't be giving life advice, I honestly think this is at least worth thinking about, if not taking to heart.
