Opposite of Exaltation?

Besides (1) examining one's own experiences as referents for a puzzling term/concept, (2) reading a dictionary for its list of conventional usages of the term/concept, and (3) investigating the etymology of a term, there is still another approach to better understanding a problematic term/concept: Consider its opposite.

What is the opposite of the meaning of "exaltation"? My unabridged dictionary offers the adjective "humble" as the antonym of "exalted."[1] The noun form, "humility" (from the Latin noun humilitas, "nearness to the ground") means feeling low or being low (on a scale of value), unworthy (of high achievements), and unsuccessful (in action).[2] Those conventional referents of "humility" are indeed opposites of exaltation: being at a high point in the achievement of a core value; being worthy of the accomplishment; and being ultimately successful in pursuit of a value.[3]

From day to day, I meet the phenomenon of humility in two forms. At first they seem to be contraries but actually they share the same root, just as Mother Theresa and Attila are alike in being mystics and altruists. Only their styles differ. The first form of humility that I see is the conventional one: a soft-spoken, bowed, and obsequious individual who is perhaps more common in theocratic or other highly hierarchical (authority-worshipping) societies.

A second form of humility appears in the type of person who is loud, hostile, and arrogant. I more frequently encounter this type of personality in our egalitarian (envy-ridden) culture. Stylistically, this type of person focuses on the small in stature, the low in value, the negative, the demeaning, and the destructive. In my experience, particularly online, the individuals who live by this standard are often those whose communication style includes: hyperbole that deafens a rational audience, not understatements that allow listeners' minds to function fully; insults, not reasoning; profanity, not words of respect; snickering, not solemnity; and buffoonery, not personal dignity.[4]

What do the two forms of humility have in common? They both reject the prerequisites of exalted moments, those moments in which the achievement of one's highest values and recognition of one's own worthiness are expressed in an upright posture, in dignity of manner, and in speech that respects the minds of rational listeners.

Of course, as always in society, there are mixed cases. Some individuals who are fundamentally humble may oscillate between the two styles of obsequiousness and verbal savagery. Other individuals, at a particular time, might be a mixture, with humility and the potential for exaltation fighting a civil war in their souls. Still others, especially young people yearning for an exalted life but sprouting in the cultural mud of humility, are in transition toward the only sort of life worth living: the exalted life. During that transition, they retain some of the mud, but less and less as the years pass.

Burgess Laughlin
Author, The Power and the Glory: The Key Ideas and Crusading Lives of Eight Debaters of Reason vs. Faith

[1] The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, 2nd ed., unabridged. [2] Cassell's Latin Dictionary. [3] For Ayn Rand's comments on humility: Ayn Rand, "Humility," The Ayn Rand Lexicon. [4] For mention of the use of understatement as an element of an objective style in writing and speaking: Ayn Rand, The Art of Nonfiction, editor Robert Mayhew, pp. 124-125.