(no subject)

[eirias]

There are two kinds of arrogance, I observed some time ago. (Knowing as many nerds as I do means I have to have a taxonomy of arrogance that goes at least a little deeper than "offensive.") One kind says implicitly, "I'm awesome and you suck!" The other kind says, "I'm awesome! Are you awesome too? Let's be awesome!"

As the years have passed I've realized a couple more things:

1. The same person might display combative arrogance on one day and cooperative arrogance on the next, depending on his/her emotional state. If you are deft (and not talking with people who are actual total assholes) you can sometimes tweak the situation and affect which kind comes out. (You can also do this in the wrong direction if you are completely inept, which is naturally how I figured it out.)

2. Observer emotions affect things too: there are moods in which it's really hard to tell which kind of arrogance you're seeing. Anything involving a lot of negative affect and you're probably screwed.

Comments

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

"Taxonomy of arrogance"! Hahaha!

I suspect I'm cooperatively arrogant a lot of the time, but I'm sure you can handle that, since you're awesome.

[eirias.livejournal.com]

*G* OK, you win, this made me laugh.

[tiurin.livejournal.com]

There's that very fine line between confidence and arrogance in that taxonomy. I'm probably on the borderline a fair amount- certainly, I know some people at Lancaster have sometimes considered what I thought confidence to be bordering on offensively arrogant even though it was really a cooperative-type rather than combative-type arrogance.

(In context example: I once told a kid that if I couldn't help them with something, chances were very good that I could point them at a friend with the appropriate expertise. Or during a crisis when I was like, "Sure, I can TA/RA simultaneously if that's what you need".)

[eirias.livejournal.com]

Delivery matters a lot; in text, the friend-expertise thing doesn't strike me as particularly odd. But as I said it depends on the observer, too, and if the observer is feeling particularly low for some reason, I could imagine it coming across wrong.

[roamin-umpire.livejournal.com]

Heh. You know, I think my high school yearbook quote might have been: "Arrogance is just the name other people give to confidence."

Fortunately, I've gotten (somewhat) better at this point.

[cognative.livejournal.com]

"I'm awesome! Are you awesome too? Let's be awesome!"

LOL. I think that's the pick up line A used on me.

Overall I agree that arrogance can be used in a combative way or an at least neutral way. I'd be lying if I said I've never been combative, but only if other people start it ;) In general niceness is much more useful than meaness.

[jpfed.livejournal.com]

I wanted to write about this very dichotomy a little while back. I was watching some special features on the "The Incredibles" DVD with some friends, and they remarked how Brad Bird seemed arrogant. But if you watch "The Incredibles"- but even more so, "Ratatouille"- you get the consistent sense that he's cooperatively arrogant and not combatively arrogant.

[eirias.livejournal.com]

That's really interesting, since both of those are (at least partially) directed toward children, and very often children's media have some moral goal in mind when pride becomes a focus. I've not seen either of those movies; can you tell how the audience is supposed to view the arrogance of the character(s)? Does "pride go before a fall" in the story? Or does pride let him do something he wouldn't have been able to do otherwise?

I wonder if there are any arrogant females in similar kids' movies and I wonder how they get treated.

[jpfed.livejournal.com]

It's a little subtler than that. Rather than any one character having this kind of arrogance, Brad Bird (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0083348/) seems cooperatively arrogant because his movies exhort the viewer to live up to their potential. Both movies feature characters that are surrounded by a culture that encourages safe mediocrity, and these characters have to overcome their cultural influences to be what they can be.