It could have been the similar use of a fictional style — or all those Ps in the title.

what’s fictional style?. you mean, alliteration? which, to you, is fictional?

From what little I know of David he saved his people from the enemy, I’m not sure Pacquiao save us from an enemy except that he saved himself, unless, of course, if we go to the bank and find the unexpected deposit.

Yes, my wife was indeed inspired by the achievements of Pacquiao, she kept on pestering me and my eldest son to go boxing instead of a career in IT, heheh.

Yes, that is exactly how those fictional witnesses should behave ;-)

But that’s not how they behaved, unless you believe that the reason the Israeli flag has the Star of David is because they simply admire the individual.

(Note: I’m not suggesting to put the iconic crucified Pacquiao in the flag btw.)

let me clarify something, and then complain about your definition of pride and your examples in “Is Proxism Proper”

A. what is Pride?

according to the internet/dictonary pride is a good feeling/satisfaction at one own’s OR another affiliated person’s achievement.

are you saying that this (standard) definition is wrong? that we should only feel pride for stuff that we accomplish ourselves?

in other words:
1) ADMIRATION is when you feel a sense of satisfaction with an allied/related person’s achievements
2) PRIDE is when you ADMIRE yourself. it only in this context that PRIDE is correctly used as a word.

is this a fair characterization?

B. Is Proxism= PRIDE?

to my knowledge, the difference between pride and admiration is identification (am i right?)

meaning “I am Proud of Pacquio, therefore its as if i share his achievements”

in when you use the word proxism, you actually mean pride, right?

and i think that for you, pride goes beyond identification. for you, it means equivalence.

i glean that from your examples:
“A student joins an art contest. His father, an architect, paints a portrait, submits it in his son’s name, and wins. Should the son accept the award and feel proud about it?
A father kills his neighbor. His son confesses and is prosecuted in his place. Should the father accept his son’s sacrifice and feel proud about it?”

identification is NEVER the issue here. what u are saying in example 1, the son should be proud to accept the award even though he did not create the art. The son and the father are EQUIVALENT.

Same with example 2.

This is probably why u use the word PROXY. This means, its as if we were the ones in the ring fighting.

by this same logic, if the son had sex with his mother, it would be the same AS IF his father had sex with his mother.

i believe pride is merely identification, we have pride with pacquiao NOT because its the same as if I had won. But only that i identify with our common heritage and nationality. It also give us a sense of hope — since pacquiao and i share the same background and experience, maybe I TOO can be great at something.

This sort of psychological identification is a powerful thing, and can inspire many people to greatness.

Though I’m not sure I’d include the American taxpayers like you did. After all, the tax was mandatory. It would’ve been another thing if they had chosen to support it voluntarily.