Pride
читать дальшеEverybody knows that the most part of history is written with human blood. So, people have always wanted to find the answer to the question: "What is the root of evil?”, “What has made them suffered for centuries?” or “What is the most horrible thing in history?". To my mind, the answer is Pride.
Pride is a high opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit or superiority. According to the Bible, pride is one of the Capital Sins. What is more, pride is considered to be the main sin, because it is the beginning and the source of other sins. It always provokes competitiveness, vanity, envy and hate. History knows a great number of examples when one nation destroyed another one out of an overwhelming desire for getting a better territory or something of a very high value that the aggressors did not have at their disposal. Pride made Alexander the Great, roman emperors and other famous conquerors move on, kill millions of people and beat them into submission to enhance their own glory, prove that they were the best and deserved undying fame.
For instance let's remember the cold war between the USSR and the USA, when two the most powerful countries were in competition with each other and tried to invent some superior kinds of nuclear weapon. They could not put a stop to arm race, because pride turned into avarice, that was impossible to be satisfied, and stimulated both countries to get better, smarter and richer. After all it has boiled down to the fact that any of these countries can destroy the whole world by pressing the button.
On top of that, when a person is proud, they are self-centered and cruel; there is no love or compassion in their heart. They praise themselves and find other people pathetic for different reasons: skin color or the sex. Such a person often tries to belittle or even debase someone else, because it makes them happy. That's why people discriminated against women and negros, that's why they invented slavery.That’s why fascism appeared.
In conclusion I would like to say that we cannot explain all misdeeds or wars with economic and political reasons. Human pride is the primal cause, economic and policy are just excuses. Unfortunately, history did not teach us and nowadays people repeat past mistakes. Up to date mankind cannot get rid of the most dangerous thing on the Earth, their own pride.