It is a rather peculiar thing how people feel pride and why they feel it. I have always wondered what this feeling which we call ‘pride’ consists of and where it comes from.
Watching people taking statues down which they believe others may be proud of makes me think about term like ‘pride’. This especially in the context of nationality and culture. A lot of people seem to feel proud of the achievements of their nation. But how can I as a single person be proud of another single person which I don’t actually know (since most of the times these bright achievers are long dead or so famous that I won’t meet them at the supermarket).
Watching a football match, either on telly or in stadium, demonstrates perfectly well the relationship between identity and pride. Everyday people feel proud of their team for winning. They feel like they themselves scored the important goal. They feel so linked to ‘their’ team that they cannot define their own identity without bringing in the construct of ‘their’ team and whatever they believe this team stands for. On the one hand side, I guess it is a good thing to be a member of a group since humans are social beings and we just simply need a social group to define and redefine ourselves. Unfortunately, this connection occurs without any further thought. Some people define themselves within the terms given by a certain group and ironically they are defined by others since they all seem to ‘know’ the attributes of this certain group. It happens to all of us, as soon as you tell someone what you you for a living they ‘construct’ you bit by bit and you react on that construction. It’s all like a self-fulfilling prophecy in a bigger social context.
A lot of the worst bits of history seem to come right from that issue that we have with constructing our identity in order to define and to be defined in a social group. And also I guess that a lot of the best bits of history come from that exact same issue. However, I suppose the narrower our construction of identity is the same applies for our ability of tolerance.
Coming back to statues being taken down. I guess some people feel pride now for being a part in this or at least support this idea. But just feeling proud without taken any action themselves isn’t enough. People should reflect on why they feel pride and what their part in this is or might be. Or in a broader sense, like Hannah Arendt said ‘No man has the right to obey.’ Which means that we should be more active in the construction of our identities and the reflection of what should be done to make life better for everyone.
Dirk Wittmann 