To have some pride is important, to have pride in yourself enables you to assert yourself in difficult situations, it enables you to achieve goals, and to maintain your own sense of self. And when we say our pride has been hurt, then we mean our ego or sense of self has been hurt. But not all pride is necessarily good, and pride can be a very fragile thing.
Aragorn has pride - it always interests me how close his name is to the word
arrogant - yet this is counterbalanced with humility. He is proud enough to realise his role and take control of situations yet not so proud that he cannot become friends with humble hobbits.
I'll use Denethor as an example of 'pride gone bad'. Where pride goes wrong is often in the case of stubbornness - where someone insists their way is the right way, as with Denethor. It can also go wrong when it leads us to taking risks, again with Denethor when he uses the Palantir. It can also lead us to be too proud of our achievements; this can be seen in Denethor's excess of pride in breeding a son like Boromir, which ultimately has bad effects for his son.
To have no pride at all would be difficult, as our sense of self would want to assert itself, but it is possible. But to be able to drop our pride is essential - as seen in the tragic consequences of Eol and Turgon's confrontation, if we can't back down or compromise, we've had it.
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*If 'definable' is not a word............it is now!*
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Ever considered a career in the civil service? Making up words is a highly sought after skill. You'd go down a storm in a strategic role...