Pride is Ugly as Sin

I read Brandon's post on President Ezra Taft Benson's talk Beware of Pride, and I thought that it deserved further analysis. I will focus on the way Benson's use of language helps his persuasive power, but I won't shy away from his use of other rhetorical devices.

From the start, President Benson shows that he's not trying to accuse and belittle us by saying "May I commend you faithful Saints who are striving to flood the earth and your lives with the Book of Mormon." When he segues into speaking on pride, instead of explicitly calling us prideful, he notes how he wants to help us avoid the destruction in the Book of Mormon, which might help us be willing to listen to him.

He also establishes his choice to speak on this subject as divinely ordained when he says "This message has been weighing heavily on my soul for some time. I know the Lord wants this message delivered now." Brandon wrote of how this associates him with ancient prophets as well. President Benson wanted to target all Church members, so anyone who wants to avoid destruction or believes in heeding prophets today or in the past is exhorted to pay attention.

To make sure we know what President Benson and the scriptures are referring to, he gives a definition of pride. "The central feature of pride is enmity—enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen. Enmity means “hatred toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition.” It is the power by which Satan wishes to reign over us." We can see how enmity is a part of pride in the rest of the examples he gives, and how if we are humble instead of trying to compete, we can "conquer... enmity toward our brothers and sisters, esteem... them as ourselves, and lift... them as high or higher than we are."

When Benson gave examples of what proud people do, one struck me as particularly powerful. Because "the proud depend upon the world to tell them whether they have value or not, ... pride is ugly. It says, "If you succeed, I am a failure."" He is justified in calling pride ugly, with the implications that both pride and its results should be repulsive to us. The attitude of "If you succeed, I am a failure" entails a lack of cooperation that has a terrible on us spiritually by damning us, or stopping our progression. In addition, as merely a temporal thing, pride will lead to a lower average standard of living because of the lack of cooperation and the destructive competition that can happen if someone focuses on making others fail rather than seeking their own or others' success.

President Benson uses repetition to describe facets of pride, the benefits of humility, and how we can become humble. (I wouldn't dare to call it anaphora, because then it would look like I was just copying Brandon.) This is effective because it adds a rhythmic quality to his statements. He starts off his descriptions of of what repenting of pride could do for us with the phrase "Think of" and all of his exhortations to be humble with "We can choose to be humble by..." By phrasing it this way, he avoids ordering us to do anything and follows the Lord's injunction relating to persuasion: "No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned." (D&C 121:41)