According to a number of people, the worst thing that one can be is proud or arrogant.
In fact pride can be quite a good thing if it motivates one to think bold and act bold.
In many American schools, serious students get attacked. The claim that is made is that they “think they’re better than everyone else.’ What qualifies these people to speak for everyone else – 7 billion people, most of them nothing like themselves? Of whatever arrogance the serious student is guilty, theirs is far greater, and it is a far more destructive form of arrogance. The innocent pride of the achiever actualizes in all sorts of accomplishments that benefit people in all sorts of ways. Whereas very little of any kind of good is owed to this attitude.
Ayn Rand affirmed the ego as the fountainhead of progress and a bulwark against tyranny. Not everything that she said was right; however she was right on this count.
The real problem with such behavior is that it traumatizes one’s best minds. This, then, renders one’s people non-competitive. The Chinese, the Hindus, the Russians and others who do not do such a thing to their youth get ahead. For this these people blame – the Jews, the liberals, the New World Order, etc. They should be blaming themselves. You do not outcompete anyone by attacking the best of what comes out of your culture. Rather you lose competitiveness as a result.
So we have idiots riding around with signs “my son beat up your honor student.” All they learn is stupid, directionless violence, that anyone can do. Meanwhile they traumatize the best minds among them, either breaking them or turning them into rebels. This makes them lose competitiveness. The Jews and the liberals did not do this to them. They did this to themselves.