Hubris and its price
Arrogance leads us not only into doing whatever we wish, it also makes us believe that others will act as we want them to. It makes us provocative and careless at the same time. As we become more vulnerable, we grow indifferent to danger, we do not evaluate reality and warnings as we should. Until disaster strikes. The meticulous report of the US Congressional Commission into the 9/11 terrorist attacks underlined this. Today, a majority of Israeli citizens blame Benjamin Netanyahu for the arrogance with which his government provoked the Palestinians while at the same time underestimating the threat of Hamas.
It is clear that Israel stumbled unawares into the inconceivable and inexcusable horror of October 7. Just as the United States did before 9/11 and in the wars that it waged afterwards. We see something similar in Ukraine and other conflicts. Putin did not expect the strength of Ukrainian resistance, nor the determination of the West to support Ukraine. But the same Western countries did not evaluate correctly Putin’s reaction when they began to tighten bonds with Ukraine, nor did they expect him to put his prestige above the need to sell energy to Europe. In Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenians seemed to believe that they would always be able to hold off Azerbaijan, which was getting richer by the day while also strengthening ties with Turkey. (The price of Turkey’s arrogance on many fronts is not spectacularly evident yet, because the poison of bigotry seeping through society is still considered positive by many.) The United States and China are heightening the tension between them with neither seeming to weigh seriously the consequences of things spiraling out of control. On top of it all, humankind is marching towards destruction because of the arrogance it has shown towards the environment.
The ancients knew all about hubris and its price. Then, the Christians named pride (superbia/arrogance) the worst of deadly sins, a sure path to destruction. Today we ought to understand that if we do not seek just solutions to problems, if we do not respect those next to us (even when we have differences with them), the cycles of violence and revenge will not end.
