Donald Trump and the Rewards of Hubris
Morgantown. Perhaps I have read too many Greek plays, but it seems to me that, thanks to the recently-inaugurated 45th President of the United States, we have now entered what might be called the Era of Hubris.
For those not acquainted with the term, hubris is extreme pride and arrogance shown by a character that ultimately brings about his downfall, a typical flaw in the personality of a character who enjoys a powerful position, as a result of which he overestimates his capabilities to such an extent that he loses contact with reality. A character suffering from hubris, for example, often tries to cross normal human limits and violates moral codes.
The philosopher Aristotle, in a quote worthy of our President and his campaign, mentions hubris in his book “Rhetoric”: “Hubris consists in doing and saying things that cause shame to the victim…simply for the pleasure of it. Retaliation is not hubris, but revenge. … Young men and the rich are hubristic because they think they are better than other people.” Aristotle thus believed that people indulge in crimes like sexual misconduct and maltreating others only to fulfill their basic desire to make themselves feel superior to others. Sound familiar?
In Greek mythology as well, hubris is depicted as a great crime and demands severe punishment. Generally, the Greek idea of hubris is that a character in an authoritative position becomes so proud of his exceptional qualities that he forms a delusion that he is equal to gods and eventually he tries to defy the gods and his fate. Cut to the first song played at Trump’s Inaugural Ball: I Did It My Way.
In Sophocles‘ “Oedipus Rex,” the character of the “King Oedipus” provides a classic example of a character who suffers from excessive pride. Due to his hubris, he attempts to defy the prophecies of the gods, only to end up doing what he feared most and was warned against: namely, killing his father and marrying his mother. His reversal of fortune is caused by his Hubris, his attempt to rebel against his own fate.
In his famous epic “Paradise Lost”, Milton’s Satan also suffers from hubris, losing his glorious position by succumbing to excessive pride. Though he fails miserably, his pride endures, and, in a moment that cannot help but bring our present Commander-in-Chief to mind, he declares: “Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n.” His rebellion against his creator originates from his reluctance to accept the authority of God because of his belief that angels are ”self-begot, self-raised” and hence bringing his downfall in being thrown out of Paradise. He did it his way.
Yet another instance of hubris is found in Marlowe’s “Doctor Faustus,“ where Faustus’s arrogance and extreme pride in his scholarship and his irresistible desire to become superior to all other men of his age forces him to sell his soul to “Lucifer” by signing a contract with his blood. He learns the art of black magic and defies Christianity. But, finally, he must pay for his arrogance and pride: The devils take away his soul to Hell and he suffers eternal damnation.
In these literary works, hubristic characters are eventually punished to provide a moral lesson to audience and readers and to motivate them to improve their characters by removing the flaws that cause tragedy in their lives. Witnessing a tragic hero suffer due to his hubris, the audience or readers may fear that the same fate will befall them if they indulge in similar kinds of actions. No such fears, apparently, for President Trump.
Contrary to common expectations, hubris is not necessarily associated with high self-esteem but with highly fluctuating or variable self-esteem, and a gap between inflated self perception and a more modest reality– a gap President Trump is about to experience first hand.
Violations of the moral law against hubris included what might today be termed assault and battery; sexual crimes; or the theft of public or sacred property. It would, for our present purposes, no doubt also include „grabbing women by the _______,“ or claiming that, because you are a star „they will let you do anything.“ Two well-known cases may be found in the speeches of Demosthenes, a prominent statesman and orator in ancient Greece. These occurred when Midias punched Demosthenes in the face in the theatre– an action literally invoked by Trump at one of his rallies– and, second, when a defendant allegedly assaulted a man and crowed over the victim– yet another event that took place at a Trump fest.
In its more modern usage, hubris denotes overconfident pride and arrogance. Sometimes a person’s hubris– are you listening, Donald?— is also associated with lack of knowledge. The proverb „pride goeth (goes) before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall“ (from the biblical Book of Proverbs, 16:18) is thought to sum up the modern definition. Hubris is also referred to as „pride that blinds,“ as it often causes its perpetrator to act in ways that defy common sense. The modern definition– a word to the wise-might be phrased as, „the pride that goes just before the fall.“
But hubris, blessedly, also brings with it the quality of “Hamartia”, a tragic flaw in its possessor that brings about his downfall. And so it may, dear President Trump, be high time for a bit of reading, a pursuit for which you seem to have taken little time in the past.
Recently, in his two-volume biography of Adolf Hitler, historian Ian Kershaw uses Hubris as the title to the first volume, describing Hitler’s early life and rise to political power. The second volume, Nemesis, gives details of Hitler’s role in the Second World War.
It concludes, we might note, with his fall and suicide in 1945.