Pride sullies the noblest character.
Claudianus
Pride is considered to be one of the major sins. We are all subject to bouts of pride in our actions, but in Pride; also lays the seeds of destruction.
Consider the following Aesop’s fable,
The fighting Cocks and the Eagle
There were two Cocks fighting to be the master of the farmyard. At last; one won. The loser hid in a corner, while the winner in its inflated sense of the self, flapped its wings and flew to top of the chicken coop. An Eagle sailing through the air pounced upon him and carried him off.
The moral of the story “Pride goes before destruction”
Parmalat, one of the biggest diary corporations was set up in 1961 when its first plant was opened by Calisto Tanzi. By 1990 it was listed on the Milan Stock Exchange. By 2003 it became a symbol of one of the largest corporate scandals when a €4 billion gap was discovered in its accounting records. Part of the reason for the gap was diversion of funds to cover huge losses in new divisions. Pride played a role in that instead of facing reality, a cover up was attempted.
While this may be very simplistic story, Pride, “loss of face” prevents people from acknowledging failure.
As per the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Industry Economic Accounts, on a 2006 GDP of 24735.6 Billion Dollars, “Motor vehicles, bodies and trailers, and parts represented 493.2 Billion Dollars or close to 2%. Taken together with associated industries and support infrastructure, the Auto industry represents 4% of US GDP.
The Auto Industry and consequently the US economy needs support, but the focus has been on “the use of Private jets by the CEO’s to attend the meeting” while the politicians are talking of “what do we tell our voters”. Pride on all sides is confusing the issue and people are missing the woods for the trees.
Claudianus
Pride is considered to be one of the major sins. We are all subject to bouts of pride in our actions, but in Pride; also lays the seeds of destruction.
Consider the following Aesop’s fable,
The fighting Cocks and the Eagle
There were two Cocks fighting to be the master of the farmyard. At last; one won. The loser hid in a corner, while the winner in its inflated sense of the self, flapped its wings and flew to top of the chicken coop. An Eagle sailing through the air pounced upon him and carried him off.
The moral of the story “Pride goes before destruction”
Parmalat, one of the biggest diary corporations was set up in 1961 when its first plant was opened by Calisto Tanzi. By 1990 it was listed on the Milan Stock Exchange. By 2003 it became a symbol of one of the largest corporate scandals when a €4 billion gap was discovered in its accounting records. Part of the reason for the gap was diversion of funds to cover huge losses in new divisions. Pride played a role in that instead of facing reality, a cover up was attempted.
While this may be very simplistic story, Pride, “loss of face” prevents people from acknowledging failure.
As per the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Industry Economic Accounts, on a 2006 GDP of 24735.6 Billion Dollars, “Motor vehicles, bodies and trailers, and parts represented 493.2 Billion Dollars or close to 2%. Taken together with associated industries and support infrastructure, the Auto industry represents 4% of US GDP.
The Auto Industry and consequently the US economy needs support, but the focus has been on “the use of Private jets by the CEO’s to attend the meeting” while the politicians are talking of “what do we tell our voters”. Pride on all sides is confusing the issue and people are missing the woods for the trees.
The Banking sector has collapsed. The housing and construction sector is in shambles. The retail figure which will be coming out in the Thanksgiving – Christmas – New Year sales season would best be forgotten. Therefore saving the auto sector is very important. Else we could perhaps see the Dow Jones going below the 7500 mark by the 1st week of January 2009.
As Dante described Pride:
"Love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one's neighbor."
The questions is :
Is Pride going to decimate the auto Industry? Nero fiddled while Rome Burnt? The Banking sector has been hit hard, the housing industry is in shambles, retail figures are worrying, and now the auto industry?
1 comment:
Often the English language outmatches Dutch with respect to vocabulary. English is simply a much richer language with subtle differences which are mistakenly seen as synonyms, such as compulsory versus obligatory.
In this special case, however, I prefer the Dutch translation for Pride: Hoogmoed, which freely translated, means ‘High courage’. The moral you presented is a very well known proverb: “Hoogmoed komt voor de val” or “Pride becomes for the fall”.
We also have another word for pride, which is ‘trots’, which is the pride that parents have for their children and you and I for hard work for which we are proud of to have finished / have been part of.
The blind pride you refer to may be cripping for the States’ auto industry, as it is largely based on national-owned companies and on total freedom (i.e. large, multi-purpose gas-guzzlers). Instead of trying to compete with the international market, the auto industry in the USA has always been largely protected.
In times where cuts should have been made, growth was stimulated, as the American car was a symbol for a proud industry with long tradition. In the mean time, the price for oil has tripled, quadrupled etc. yet only recently have there been indications for producing fuel efficient cars: too little, too late as you can see from General Motors.
I don’t know it the banking world has been hit by pride; I think the earlier entries on Greed better reflect what happened there.
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