The Art of Arrogance

“Arrogance is in everything I do. It is in my gestures, the harshness of my voice, in the glow of my gaze, in my sinewy, tormented face.”

- Coco Chanel

A few years ago I was constantly enmeshed by a dark blanket of self-doubt. It was a lax net on my limbs, coolly preventing me from any sort of positive spurt in any direction. Completely disbarred from any notion of ambition, I practised the same activity every day. This activity was living… living in its slowest, purest form. I did things without reason – eating, drinking, reading and watching. It was like walking a well-worn path which never seemed to end. It was one path, separated by two dichotomous ends.

The linear ignorance I led my life with was pressed tightly between the security of familiarity and an ever pervading gulf of uncertainty. I never bothered to cross fully into either territory. I stayed bound to what I knew, to what made me feel at ease and to what was predictable. What I didn’t realise then, was that I was only half right about the gulf of uncertainty. It was of course, uncertain, but retrospectively I see there was nothing so epic about its proportions that could render it a gulf. Never was I autonomous, and never did I believe I could achieve anything initially considered insurmountable. The environment around me had warmed me into a soft ball of plasticine. Easily affected and easily corrupted.

When I eventually found the determination to gain resoluteness about myself, my objectives, my aspirations… I met a new trait I had never come across before. This was, of course, arrogance. Just reading the word feels so negative, does it not? Who comes into your mind when you read the word arrogant? Do you dislike this person? Do not confuse arrogance with vanity, with conceit, or with pride, for arrogance is not any of those, yet they are inexorably linked. The fantastic aspect of arrogance (one which I particularly admire) is that it is more to do with revealing one’s vanity, conceit or pride. When you realise you have control over your image, you are now your environment. You are now the warmth that shapes you. Arrogance has been a tool I have used for a long time, whether I used it to cut through that gulf of uncertainty, or to sculpt an image of myself – the uses I found for it were not limited.

Humility is so morally celebrated it is illogical to think that anyone could respect arrogance, let alone support it. To me arrogance has never been negative or disillusioned. Every trait about someone tells you something about their character. Do not take arrogance to be one trait in itself. It is more like a subcategory for the other traits someone has. If we think of water flowing through a pipe as all the specific traits connected to arrogance, then the valve that controls this flow is arrogance, or even, modesty. For some people the valve is open completely, for some it is shut, and for some it stays at a point constant between the two. The trick is to keep your hand on that valve at all times, ready to twist, alter and control.

Those that are supremely modest must be aware of its leeching existence. Modesty is suitable in certain circumstances (meeting new people, making good impressions, etcetera), but the more you try and be modest the higher the risks are of you eventually sinking into an abyss of self-doubt. Psychology has shown us if we are conditioned to one thing enough times we begin to truly believe it, and when you tell yourself you are ‘just alright’ or that you ‘aren’t that special’, you are continually detracting from the true self-worth you possess. Of course, one can argue if you use arrogance all the time, you can trick yourself into believing you are better than you actually are, and that may be considered even worse. The secret to not falling into either one of these traps is balance and control. (Remember that metaphorical valve I was writing about?) Once you are able to balance modesty and arrogance you can keep your mind in healthy fluctuation between what you are and what you want to be. Control is vital because you need to realise that you are inevitably in control of yourself. Never forget that you are your environment, and if the world is going to enjoy any of your merits and talents you need to control your mind into believing you are, in fact, capable of getting to where you want to be.

So, who is to say arrogance is negative? ‘Meaning’ is a self-constructed deduction influenced by numerous factors. To me, many meanings are mercurial, and are too often shaped by the majority. If someone is a bit too certain about themselves: what does that tell you about them? Any common person would say that they are simply arrogant (as if it’s just one fact in itself), but is that because those who are arrogant are in fact arrogant? Or is that because those who aren’t arrogant are weak, making the ‘arrogant’ seem arrogant? Or is arrogance a form of insecurity – making arrogance a form of weakness? Or do people like to call arrogance insecurity because it makes them feel more secure about their weaknesses?

History has proved to us, people like to shun the qualities they cannot find in themselves, and we also know that when the majority forms an opinion on something, it often stays steadfast. Disregard what your friends think, what your family thinks and what perhaps you originally thought. If you have realised thinking is a process of development, then you are already one step closer to control and perfect impartiality.

It is ironic I write of impartiality but aim to convey a one-sided message on the positivity of arrogance. However, when you realise how much the environment around you has instilled in you the negativity of arrogance, this piece of writing is just one rogue soldier fighting against an entire army built on convention.

I have called this “The Art of Arrogance” because arrogance is a form of art. You need to have a vision, you need to have control, and you can only get better at it with practice. Hopefully you have started to question some of the things I’ve written about, and more importantly, have started to question other things too. The main reason I write this is to encourage thought, and if you have agreed or disagreed with, scoffed at, or even slandered what I have wrote, then my job is done. You have thought about what I have written, and you have become aware of your own thoughts too. When you know you are being arrogant and when you know you are being modest, you realise you have the power to depict yourself in any way you please. Try to consider every typically negative trait with a broader perspective - it is so easy to ascribe a constant definition to something without further consideration of ulterior meanings and values.

I'll admit, in this tumultuous sea of our realm everything is a game… and I do believe to stay afloat we must all learn to play it.