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Humility: A Needed Balance
On early modern philosophers and online trolls
There’s a self-defeating irony in declaring that you are humble and in judging that someone else is not.
“The ‘I,’ even just to say ‘I think,’ is a lit fuse…”
If you intend to be humble, there’s a tension in saying or drawing attention to any detail whatsoever about yourself. How can a fully humble person say anything about the world? Any observation or analysis you make inevitably comes from your perspective.
The “I,” even just to say “I think,” is a lit fuse, never mind if the purpose is just to say “therefore I am.”
If you hope to be admired and lauded for being humble, well, go back to the drawing board on that one.
Sometimes, a Troll Warns You to be Humble
I’ve been approached by online commenters who try to exploit this tension.
More than once, an anonymous account has tried to start an argument with me by putting forth some untenable position, and, when I calmly provide a few rational arguments to the contrary, the reply is: Have you noticed that some people are arrogant and others humble? Which do you believe you are? The troll here pretends to teach me some proper opinion but eventually shows that they just want to brag I’m right, you’re wrong while claiming that I’m the arrogant one. They inform me that their moral or intellectual character is better than mine and thus they in their humility must show me the light and correct my arrogant ways.
They imply they are superior to most humans precisely because they refrain from asserting their own superiority. (This statement is, as I’ve already noted, performatively self-contradictory. You can compliment someone else this way, but the compliment is self-annihilating if you say it about yourself.)
They imply they are superior specifically to me, on the grounds that I allegedly asserted I’m superior to them. (Which is simply false. I didn’t. I said I had some belief or opinion about something or other. They’re revealing a worldview in which only people who believe they’re better than others ever think or say anything — which reflects on them.)
