One of the characters played by Al Pacino in the famous movie "The Devil's Advocate" said the following phrase: "Vanity is my favorite of sins." Unfortunately, at present, almost every person, if not selfish, then ambitious. Alas, it is. And what does this vice mean and what is its nature?
Vanity is a form of self-affirmation and ex altation of one's own person in the eyes of others. If a person is vain, it means that he has a great need to praise his personality.
Representatives of the clergy give an unambiguous assessment of ambition and pride, referring them to mortal sins. At the same time, they argue that if a person is vain, this can be corrected: you just need to repent before God for your vicious deeds.
It should be emphasized that if a person experiences a burning desire to assert himself, then the level of his mental stress is prohibitive. In such a state, the individual seeks by all means to gain power over others. If on the way to this goal he encounters barriers and obstacles, then hebecomes even more cruel and evil. About whom can you say that a person is vain? This is someone who does not want to perceive reality, because his thoughts are focused on the following: "What do they think of me and what impression will I make?"
Of course, every individual suffers from ambition in one form or another. At the same time, it is unusual for people to publicly demonstrate the above vice. That is why a vain person is one who carefully hides from everyone that he is in dire need of flattery and praise. Psychologists say that a person can outwardly show modesty, which should be interpreted only as one of the variations of disguised ambition.
In particular, one individual can be so vain that the opinion of relatives and friends means absolutely nothing to him, and the second, on the contrary, seeks to enlist the support of others in order to further use it in his own interests.
It must be emphasized that ambition can take extremely dangerous forms. Not only does a vain person begin to engage in useless activities that are directed towards his person, forcing him to constantly think about his interests, he does not care about his close circle at all. Moreover, the ambitious person ceases to understand the true value of interpersonal relationships, his perception of reality becomes false.
No other vice can so spoil the free development of personality as vanity. It should be noted that ambition has never been good for anyone. What does vain mean? The word itself gives an interpretation of this truly terrible sin of mankind. This is "empty", "vain" glory. An ambitious person cannot live without confirmation of his superiority. As a result, he ceases to adequately assess the significance of his own role in society.
Of course, this vice must be eradicated everywhere, it is not only possible, but necessary to fight it!
