NorthOfNorth wrote on Jul 7
th, 2008 at 8:16am:
Of the seven deadly sins (or cardinal sins if you're Catholic) which are lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride (and some would argue that spite is an eighth), all of which it is easily arguable can carry some degree of immorality. However, I have had some problems with the notion of pride being necessarily a cardinal sin except where its intent is to refer to arrogance.
Do you risk your own virtue necessarily when you feel proud that your children have succeeded? Or when your country has acted honourably?
Compare those to acting in an arrogant manner.
Is arrogance in itself immoral?
Only for other people
As a secular moral code, you're drawing on some good aspects of the Christian tradition, but to me there are some good examples in Taoist philosophy and Buddhism. (Nothing is Nothing)
As far as pride is concerned, it has its pitfalls (pride comes before a fall), and in its worse form leads to martyrdom, but I think patriotic pride or pride in one's community or religion can be very positive. If everybody in a community feels like it's doing well, it will do well. In that respect, pride is motivational.
For example, I like the Taoist virtue of the wu wei, or 'go with the flow' often translated as "effortless doing". We reach peak efficiency in life if we can achieve things without deliberately trying too hard. People who try too hard and make it obvious that they are putting in a big effort are basically putting a lot of energy into 'big timing' themselves, and making a fool of themselves. We are part of the universe, it's not 'Me versus the rest of the universe', and the sooner we realise that we are part of nature, the easier things will be.
When I'm road running, I always look for the wu wei. Don't waste all your energy fighting the universe when you can actually use the natural flow of the universe to improve your effort in life.
I don't know if I've explained that very well, but to me that's as important a moral value as any in Western philosophy and religion, and in light of the current climate crisis, it's even more relevant today.
I'm not going to explain the enture Taoist philosophy in one post, but in terms of ethics, the 'three treasures' are compassion, moderation and humility. They are also sometimes translated as kindness, simplicity and modesty.