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An early case of ‘hubris’?

Dec 06, 2008 Letters

Dear Editor,
President-elect Barack Obama was asked how he expected to promote change by appointing so many old Clinton hands.

The President-elect said the change will come from him. In discussing this, the US TV host of MSNBC asked if this was not an early case of “hubris”.

I looked up the word and its implications. I came across two books written by David Owen, a former UK Foreign Secretary and a medical doctor by profession. “The Hubris Syndrome” was published in 2007 and “In Sickness and in Power” in 2008.

He argues in the first that “hubristic behaviour” is caused by changes in the mental state by being in power and that “hubris” is not merely a personal characteristic but “a pathological state” requiring treatment.

Owen states that leaders who have developed hubris believe that they know what is best, can do no wrong and that lying and cutting corners are justified in achieving their objectives.

As their pathological state develops, they seek to accumulate power by means which are determined by their countries’ internal political situations.

Eventually they believe that only they are capable of managing the affairs of their countries and seek to perpetuate their own power.
Egbert Daniels

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