Monday, November 30, 2009

The Self-Approval Bias

It is amazing to me how fiercely people love what is theirs.

Some person, some object, some place--insignificant and unattractive--takes on a whole new level of value once it has been claimed.

What once was clay becomes gold. What were flaws are ignored. There is no more critical evaluation, no more analysis. No more doubts.

It is unequivocally good because it is yours. It is part of you. And every man loves himself.

It is almost always annoying to hear these self-approving people talk about their objects of approval.

But some, a minority, do not love themselves. They do not pronounce, like God, that they and theirs are good. These people's company are bearable if their self-criticalness is tempered with charity and grace.

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