Pray to Allah Almighty not to trap us for being intellectually arrogance. Many contemplate, to make the point across, one has to be arrogant. That is not true. intellectual discourse is an exercise of bringing forth the best argument to be tested, argued and accepted by others. In case where points argued are not well-received, it shouldn’t be misconstrued as personal rejection.
Nevertheless, there is a metaphor saying, it is harder to be poor without murmuring than to be rich without arrogance. In other word, you can be intellectually superior or rich without being arrogance.
Looking from psychodynamic perspective, arrogance which is basically, the projective identification of omnipotence is actually a form of expression which conveys stupidity because of its hatred of curiosity. Psychodynamic psychotherapist believes that where the life instincts predominate, pride becomes self-respect, whereas when the death instinct predominates, pride becomes arrogance.
Some believe honest arrogance is Ok provided honesty is being practice and central to the ‘niat‘ or intention. As Frank Loyd Wright used to say..”Early in life, I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance and have seen no occasions to change”. Well, he is a Western man.
In the Malay culture, there is an idiom, to follow the character of paddy plant, the bigger you grow, the more wisdom you will be. Therefore, I don’t believe, arrogant, as such, is basically in line with the traditional Malay weltanschauung. I had learnt from my observation, staying in the East Coast of Malaysia over many years, the main contrast between many Kelantanese and Terengganu people lies to fact that the Kelantanese practice hypocritical humility whereas Terengganuan so to speak practice honest arrogance. What would happen if a Kelantanese marry to a Terengganu. Well, they have to tolerate each other. No choice or option for humble toleration as recipe for a successful marriage.
I leave it to you to decide which side you are in. Till we meet again, cheers and have a nice day.
Idea-logy 