Arrogance

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines "arrogance" as "an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions". In their online thesaurus, they call it "an exaggerated sense of one's importance that shows itself in the making of excessive or unjustified claims" and give two antonyms, "humility" and "modesty".

Modern Americans have a complicated relationship with the concept of arrogance. At most times, in most circles, to call someone "arrogant" is considered a criticism, while to call them "humble" or "modest" is considered praise. Yet we also praise "self-confidence" -- which I consider to be a close cousin of arrogance -- and embrace phrases such as "Fortune favors the bold" (credited to the Roman epic poet, Virgil). When compared with citizens of other countries, Americans are sometimes described as "arrogant", which we deny while insisting that this is "the greatest country in the world".

In examining the Merriam-Webster statements on arrogance, I suppose it is a matter of degree, including the "overbearing manner" and "the making of excessive or unjustified claims". If someone is the best at something, and knows they are the best, and claims to be the best, then I suppose this is not "excessive or unjustified", though there is still the issue of the "overbearing manner", which may be largely in the eye of the beholder. Certainly many of our world leaders and celebrities may be viewed as arrogant, but perhaps it all comes down to where you draw the line between arrogance and confidence. OR perhaps we claim to embrace the idea that arrogance is "bad", while actually being drawn to it.

I have been thinking about the idea of arrogance as it relates to having a personal blog. I already have several web sites, with the basic goal of sharing specific information with the rest of the world, including information about musical groups and information about family history (which is targeted mostly at members of my extended family, rather than the entire world). These web sites do not seem particularly "arrogant" to me; people might want access to the information, and the web sites provide it. A blog sharing my personal musings about ideas, rather than specific information, moves toward more questionable territory. The idea that I somehow believe the entire World Wide Web community should have access to these musings, or more specifically that ANYONE should spend their time viewing these musings, is troublesome. I tell myself that the blog is an outlet for ME, and no one is under any obligation to visit it, and I do not particularly make any claims about its value ... yet it still feels intrinsically arrogant.

This remains troubling a month into this blog. I will attempt to deal with it more in a future entry that I plan to call "Problems".