ARROGANCE

One of the things that people claim to dislike in political candidates is something they call “arrogance.” I agree that arrogance is by its nature an irritating thing.

But my question is, what do people mean when they use the word? I suspect that everyone has his own definition (we are after all living in the day of “democratized truth”).

I looked online at the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, which defines arrogance as “an insulting way of thinking or behaving that comes from believing that you are better, smarter, or more important than other people” or “an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptious claims or assumptions.”

It appears that people like to use the word without much thought, & limit it to people or (in the political realm) candidates whom they dislike. I also suspect that a lot of people resort to their own subjective feelings as the basis of labeling one person as arrogant & another as not.

I believe that people with experience & expertise are easily perceived as arrogant by others without the same expertise or experience. Hence, someone who has effective skills or abilities gained thru perseverance & long trial & error experience, & who has succeeded where others have failed can easily be seen by less successful or less skilled people as an arrogant person.

Arrogance in politics is not personality or even the lack of people skills that measure up to our standards. It is, to paraphrase Merriam-Webster, the attitude & behavior of someone who considers herself better & smarter than others. It is the self-perception that she can bully or coddle her way into elected office simply because she feels entitled to it.

Arrogant people, by this definition, don’t deserve my vote.