Psychology of Survival: Arrogance

Feature | Psychology of Survival: Arrogance

This week's mental barrier is arrogance. Arrogance is a sense of one's own importance that shows itself in a proud and insulting way. It can often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one's own competence or capabilities, especially when the person exhibiting it is in a believed position of power.

An Excerpt of arrogance:

On the morning of the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon Bonaparte smugly assured his generals: “I tell you Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad soldiers; nd this affair is nothing more than eating breakfast.”

There is a fine line between an accurate sense of one's abilities and unadulterated arrogance. If you're repeatedly successful, you're inclined to build up the assumption that you are impervious to human fallibility.

Arrogance –  Often takes the form of “It can’t happen here because this is the United States (or Canada).” or “Things like that only happen in Third World countries.”  But it DOES happen here and because of our society’s reliance on electricity & oil, things are set to get much worse.

Unfortunately, with our status as a “First World country” we often fall into this category and as such are much less prepared than other countries throughout the world.  Natives to Third World countries are used to getting by with (or often times without) the bare minimums needed to survive. To them boiling water and scavenging food is  a day to day activity and not an extreme

What may be a common occurrence in other countries such as a food shortage, power outage or even disease can cause widespread panic and hysteria in our modern country.  In order to overcome arrogance, you need to look outside of your bubble and realize that in many places in the United States, things are not so different than Third World countries.  Look at New Orleans after Katrina, or any town in the Midwest after a massive f5 tornado.  You will need to look at events in recent history that show just how quickly we can be booted out of the modern age.  Don’t let arrogance become ignorance.

Check out these related articles from our site:

Psychology of Survival: Ignorance

The Psychology of Survival – Why Your Mind Matters Most

Psychology of Survival: Fear and Despair

 

Save

7 Responses to :
Psychology of Survival: Arrogance

  1. Lance says:

    Psychology is misspelled in at least two places on the website.

    1. Joe says:

      Hey Lance,
      Thanks for the spell check, i fixed both of them, apparently microsoft word decided that I had spelled it correctly and I didn’t double check. Thanks for pointing it out.

      Joe

  2. George Baro says:

    People don’t understand that The Head in the Sand isn’t going to save them. While they are busy checking out who won on American Idol, society is falling down around them. As long as you don’t mess with their Bar-B-Q and pool party the rest is meaning less.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *