Hubris - from the ancient Greek, defined as a tragic character flaw consisting of foolish, arrogant pride. It was one of the Greeks' favorite emotions. They loved to write about its power to destroy the lives of everyone it touched, usually in dramatic, calamitous ways.
Whenever I think of hubris, I think of Ralph Nader, the third party candidate in the 2000 Bush versus Gore presidential election. I grew up in the sixties, and he was one of my heroes: a champion of the little guy against the depredations of corporate America, a consumer watchdog, a warrior for the environment, defender of the earth.
In 2000 we were on the cusp of the golden age of America - the true golden age, not the make-believe fantasy of the fifties. President Clinton had finally repaired the economic damage done by a succession of Republican presidents and managed to generate a budget surplus while retaining the safety net of programs for the poor and disabled, and while Republicans had begun to show signs of the brain-eating disease which would ultimately consume them all, there were still a few that were hanging on to their sanity. And most importantly, the Clinton policies were about to be extended into a third term by an experienced, intelligent, progressive politician with a passion for protecting the environment. It was right there before us - the golden age of America, and the world. All we had to do was reach out and take it.
But hubris intervened in the form of Ralph Nader, a man unwilling to pass the torch on to the next generation of environmentalists. Old, bitter, consumed by hubris, he mounted a third party campaign, making the absurd claim there was no difference between Bush and Gore.
He wasn't the only reason Bush won: Gore wasn't a great campaigner; the Republicans had no compunction about lying about anything and everything; and half the electorate preferred to vote for someone who was a "regular guy" rather than someone who seemed more like a college professor. But Nader did his part, and everything he had accomplished in his long, distinguished career was wiped away by eight years of Bush.
Where would this country be if Gore had been elected? Where would our economy be? Where would race relations be? Where would global warming be? I hope Nader is satisfied to some degree by the realization that he was influential enough to affect the world. I imagine the fact that it was an extremely negative impact makes little difference to the god of hubris.
Now we have the latest example of hubris in the person of Bernie Sanders. Again old, bitter, unwilling to step aside and let others take center stage. I feel the same anger toward him I felt toward Nader. Both of them so consumed by hubris they would rather allow pain,suffering, and irreparable damage to be inflicted on the planet rather than see someone other than themselves be the one to defeat the purveyors of hate and ignorance that threaten to destroy us.
There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.
