A Necessary Arrogance

Last week saw the passing of one of the great actors, Christopher Plummer.

This blog isn’t about him, but during one the retrospective interviews with him, he mentioned something about arrogance. Normally, I don’t think much of people who seem arrogant. I usually think they are so full of themselves, so self-involved with their own lives, that they over-look and/or ignore those around them.

But Mr. Plummer said something that struck me. He mentioned the idea of “necessary arrogance”, and that, in some cases, it is important to have that arrogance when, in his case, acting. But that one should only hold onto it for a second, unless one becomes conceited.

His words struck me because the day before at work, as I was preparing a shipment to load, I noticed a box that had a flap missing, but was just taped over. It looked like shit, the items inside could fall out or the tape could be punctured or come apart. I mentioned this to the guy in charge of packing, and he wasn’t happy. Even after “fixing” it, it was still terrible. Already being late, I said nothing and let it go.

Hearing Mr. Plummer’s words made me wonder if I am arrogant? Not the conceited version, but the one that takes pride in something and sees, in any certain moment, a superiority over others. Well, then yeah, I can be arrogant.

Aw crap.

All these years railing against people who act arrogant, perhaps I too had that within me, to be selfish, self-serving, and better than others.

But then, I remembered what else Mr. Plummer had said. He called it a “necessary arrogance”, and that it should be fleeting. Holding onto it for too long allowed that arrogance to grow into conceit, or excessive pride in one’s self.

I thought about his words for a while and begun to agree with what he said. There are times when “necessary arrogance” is… necessary. For actors, like Mr. Plummer, it is definitely needed when portraying larger-than-life, powerful characters who feel utterly justified in their actions, especially if they result in something terrible. But that could also be transferred to life, in my case, with the poorly-packed box. I worked with my father and brother in the moving industry, where I learned about warehousing and packing materials. Their work ethic has heavily influenced me, and it told me that the box was poorly taped up, done by someone too lazy to bother doing it properly. Now, I can say with some confidence that the person who packed it was lazy because, I knew who packed it and I knew they were lazy, from seeing how they have worked over the past year (FYI: it wasn’t the poor guy who tried to fix it).

The more I thought about it, the more I could see that I did have an arrogance to my persona. But thankfully, I also knew that it wasn’t conceit. I know there are things I have good knowledge of, that I can talk about it with a certain confidence, bordering on arrogance. But I also know there are many, many things I am not knowledgeable of. Even the things I have knowledge of, I know I am not the be-all/ end-all with regards to them.

For most of my life, I was a very shy and quiet person. It has only been in the past decade or so that I have found my voice. Perhaps, I have only gained any kind of confidence to even think about being arrogant in that time. I think my past-self has tempered my present-self enough that I will, hopefully, not suffer any conceit. I also hope that my self-reflection will ensure that any conceit never gets too far.

Sustained arrogance is a bad thing. It can alter your perception of yourself and can be used to demean others without thought. But I think “necessary arrogance” can give you courage, confidence, and ensure you don’t let others ignore, over-look, or belittle you.

Because sometimes, you have to be an arrogant prick.

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay