The problem with pride

I've long been both dismayed and puzzled by the right wing elevation of contempt to the level of virtue. Well, today I have come across an article that examines this dynamic. It's called "America and the seven deadly sins". Here's part of what it says:

The bumper stickers read "The Power of Pride" with the blue letters following the red and white contours of an unfurled American flag. That's all the bumper stickers say. But what are they really saying? What makes the bearers of this sticker so proud?

That the nation is in the hands of the most hated man on the planet, who has dragged America's good name through the mud, a stain that will take two generations to remove, if indeed it can be removed?

That America is always right, even when she's wrong?

Or that America is proud even when the government behaves in ways that collectively shame us?
...
While many definitions of pride have been tendered, Dante's might be the best of all, and the one that most accurately describes America's current excess, embodied by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the various assorted pundits of the mainstream press: "love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one's neighbor."
...
America's sin of Pride, its worship of the Power of Pride, has had predictable results. The Pew Global Attitudes Project, which interviewed 93,000 people in 50 countries over the past four years, has shown the rest of the world hates the United States now and the taint of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al., has now "trickled down" to the rest of us. Regardless of how we feel about these criminals in power, simply because we are Americans we are hated almost equally by Europeans, Asians and Arabs.

As the Times of London reported, "Majorities around the world think Americans are greedy, violent and rude, and fewer than half in countries such as Poland, Spain, Canada, China and Russia think Americans are honest...Few analysts expect more than marginal improvements, short of another Sept. 11. The dislike is accelerating among youth. The problem...is Americans, not just [President] Bush. In increasing numbers, people around the globe resent U.S. power and wealth and reject specific actions such as the occupation of Iraq and the campaign against democratically elected Palestinian leaders...America's image problem is pervasive, deep and perhaps permanent, analysts say, an inevitable outcome of being the world's only superpower."

It's really embarrassing to be an American today. I'm deeply ashamed of my country. It's tragic. And it hurts my heart beyond expression.