Cynical Status Sunday (TM) · 8:46am Jul 28th, 2013
Pride, pride is a powerful motivator, unless you're wary or wounded by self-grandeur, pride is the virtuous vice.
Humility, but not quite, is anathema to motivation. The desire to create is purely a work of the ego, there is no sense denying it.
Benevolence, but perhaps that too is the wrong word, is a pure motivator. The power of pride, the rational ballast of humility, benevolence is what makes you think; "I want to do something that will make the world a slightly better place for it being a part of it." It is selfish. It is selfless. It is the belief that you can make something great, the willingness to do so and the want to try.
What's curious, though, is how like iron they temper under duress. That's like stress with an extra syllable.
Pride is the strongest, yes, for it is brittle. It will not bend or warp, it will weather any storm until breaking point, at which point it will shatter magnificently.
Humility, though, will bend and bow with the blows and come out more refined for it; Humility is curious like that. a crushing blow will only confirm the fears and doubts, hairline cracks and faults that run through the shining veneer, but in their fault it finds new strength, a new light to shine all the brighter for.
Benevolence, now, benevolence is the easiest of all to kill. It does not shatter like pride, and outwardly it appears to weather the storm much like humility. But it does not come out stronger. It warps, it gnarls upon itself, it becomes bitter and toxic, much like arsenic from copper, tainted, receeding in upon itself.
The forces are simpler still to identify; Praise, which strains the ego, massages doubts and redoubles the spirit, criticism, which inflames contention, strikes angsts and strains the id.
The most toxic, the most lethal of all, though, is indifference, apathy or outright dismissal.
Cynical Status Sunday(TM) now with 20% more philosocynicism.
They really do need to add a section for giving a favorite to a blog post to go into Fav Blog posts.
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And yet, Pride is considered such a bad thing, that false humility is usually preferred.
On a related note, I have noticed in fanfiction, Twilight is often characterized as extremely humble. I assume this comes from Boast Busters, because at no other point is she particularly humble. She isn't a braggart, by any means, but neither does she downplay her achievements, save perhaps by never feeling that they are enough. Consider her song in the season 3 premier. She spent several segments showing off, for no real reason, other than she could.
And in BB she was acting like that because she was still far too new to social interaction, that she didn't know that her friends disliked Trixie because she was a colossal braggart. (And lets face it, Rares, AJ, and RD were pretty out of line during that ep.)
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Twilight is what I try and fail to imitate; She is benevolence. She is that balance that knows, yes, I'm better than you, undeniably. I hold, however, no malicor resentment to you for that fact, I simply wish to be the best me I can be and be that for you, too.