Thursday, March 19, 2015

The Arrogance of Criminals

I was raised with a lot of criminals. Most of them are now dead or in prison.

One thing I noticed about them is that none of them were all that smart, yet, paradoxically, they were arrogant. They thought they were smarter than others, that they could get away with anything, and they would never get caught.

I knew one guy who thought he could consistently rip off people on drug deals. Stupid? Yes. Also arrogant. He ended up dead and dumped in the stockyards in hope the pigs would eat him and leave no evidence.

Another thought he could go after any women who took his fancy. He ended up blown off his Harley. The shooter got life in prison.

I've seen this stupidity and arrogance over and over and over. The ancient Greeks called it hubris and the Bible refers to it as Pride. Hubris as in "followed by Nemesis." The same applies to that Biblical Pride.

All of these guys, to use Manosphere terms, were "insanely confident." Notice the "insanely" part. That's what they were. Insane - and now dead or in prison.

The opposite of that Hubris/Pride is humility, as the Greek concept of Sophrosyne, which means to know your strengths and weaknesses. Because, after all, no one is perfect. In fact, not even close, for all of us.

16 comments:

Unknown said...

There's plenty of arrogant people. The criminals are just the ones who act out on their arrogance.

Anonymous said...

"You're a good man, Briggs. Good man's got to know his limitations."

Anonymous said...

I've known some criminals who were actually smart. They were all quiet, though, which I suppose is the quality that sets them apart from the not so smart. They're also mostly still alive, and all are no longer criminals. I suspect they dwell on their past activities lives more than their arrogant counterparts.

Unknown said...

The most dangerous men are the quiet ones, not the loudmouths.

Alex said...

@Anonymous,

It's not even necessarily a matter of smarts, it's more like discipline or self-control, though I'll grant that intelligence would also lead to more self-control.

The bottom rung of the criminal element has very poor impulse control, the top has it in spades.

kurt9 said...

The opposite of that Hubris/Pride is humility, as the Greek concept of Sophrosyne, which means to know your strengths and weaknesses.

A good man always knows his limitations.

Anonymous said...

Some of them are REALLY stupid and arrogant. A few years ago when I was in high school, there was a hispanic man about 20 years old. He bragged on facebook that he never thought getting away with murder could be so easy. A few weeks later, a man that was accused of raping her teenage girlfriend (never proven)is mourning his mothers death and the retard goes on telling everyone that he killed her by running her over. The retard was surprised he got caught even though he deleted his post.

Anonymous said...

"The most dangerous men are the quiet ones, not the loudmouths."

The brother of a friend of mine was arrested and initially charged with first-degree murder by a wildly overzealous prosecutor. He was held for a time in an overcrowded maximum-security facility with the worst of the violent offenders. He observed that they never bragged or boasted, nor did they ever give warnings if they were about to attack- if you pissed them off, they showed no emotion about it, but attacked brutally and without warning when the time was right- often days, weeks, or even months later.

Later, when the prosecutors realized that an acquittal was virtually guaranteed, they let him plead down to dramatically lesser charges. He got moved to a lower-security prison with much less violent offenders. Almost all of them constantly bragged about how tough they were, and how they were going to "kick everyone's ass!".

Robert What? said...

I have a member of my extended family who is in the category of "if he had a brain, he'd be dangerous".

Robert What? said...

Bob, totally OT, but did you change the formatting of your mobile site? It used to be easily readable on my smartphone (Android Motorola RAZR). Now it is much wider and i have to swipe right and left for each line.

Unknown said...

Fixed

Robert What? said...

Excellent, thanks. Wouldn't want to miss my favorite uncle ;-)

Black Poison Soul said...

I am missing my favorite Uncle. You okay man? Or simply taking a break?

Unknown said...

Computer motherboard went out, so I am debating rebuilding it or buying s new one. Until then I am reduced to my tablet.

Black Poison Soul said...

Good to hear you're okay.

If the computer is more'n 3 years old, buy a new computer. Chances are the other hardware is getting dodgy too.

Don't bother with a top-of-the-line though: that's only needed for high-end users like gamers, audio/film editors, computer professionals, major graphics, etc. Go for midrange.

Anonymous said...

You can get a small notebook/laptop computer cheap these days at walmart or even best buy for $250 - $500.