Election: Was May’s Problem Really “Hubris”?

Paul Nuttall’s parting shot after his crippling election defeat and the closure of his Facebook and Twitter accounts was to accuse Theresa May of jeopardising Brexit with an act of “hubris”. The term has been frequently thrown at the May for calling the snap election against what appeared to be a weak Labour opposition but proved stronger than expected on election night.

Hubris was a Greek concept of a hero deeming himself to be above the gods, which would inevitably result in divine punishment. The concept is summarised today by the idea that pride comes before a fall.

The simplest insight into the ancient concept of hubris is found at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi (left) where prophetic oracles were received. The temple was carved with the commands “Nothing in excess” and “know thyself”.

Greek Myth

The works of the so-called “father of history” Herodotus have a strong moral bias that focuses extensively on hubris. His account of the Persian Wars – now popularly associated with the 2006 film “300” based on the 480 BC Battle of Thermopylae – depicted the Persian emperor Xerxes as a god-like king who was defeated because of his hubris.

Rather than risking a vulnerable passage by sea his army built a bridge across the Hellespont to Greece. The gods punished his arrogance by sending a storm to cripple his advance. The text is also filled with powerful imagery of Xerxes’ army making the ground shake while nature bows to his control with rivers running backwards. He was never going to get away with being so powerful.

After the Persian Wars the successful Greek hero Pausanias also got carried away with himself and after taking control of a league of Greek states intended to resist another Persian attack started pillaging islands for personal glory.

Rome

The following Roman Empire had a similar concept of “pietas” that meant a kind of modest respectability but also the idea of “virtus”, from which we get virtue and virility, which meant strong masculine power.  Gaining status was central to the culture of Roman men which is why the Republic ended in chaos as generals returning from military campaigns marched on Rome with their armies and made themselves rulers. Successful commanders were celebrated with triumphs – grand processions through the city – which would see them accompanied by a servant whose job was to whisper in their ear “you are not a god.”

After winning the 49-45 BC civil war against Pompey the Great the victorious Julius Caesar became sole ruler of Rome. The Senate feared a return to the days of Rome’s ousted tyrant kings and killed him.

Aware of this attitude, Caesar’s successor Augustus made a big show of returning the rule of Rome to the Senate after waging another civil war against Mark Antony. The Aeneid of Virgil was written as propaganda to support his rule as a pious leader respectful of Roman tradition. The epic poem tells the story of Augustus’ fictional ancestor Aeneas, describing the principle of pietas as “pardon the defeated and war down the proud”.

Should May read Classics?

Was former history lecturer Paul Nuttall right to accuse Theresa May of hubris? His argument was that May’s overconfidence about smashing Labour  proved close to political suicide. She has sacrificed the 2015 Conservative majority for a hung parliament, forcing her to rely on the parliamentary support of the Democratic Unionist Party.

His comments gained credibility from her poorly-fought campaign, in which she refused to take part in any televised debates, performed U-turns on key social care policy and rarely ventured beyond her “strong and stable” slogan.

While Xerxes advanced into Greece with an army that practically blocked out sunlight, May withdrew and stage-managed most of her election from a safe distance. Calling the election was ambitious but it was intended to gain a mandate from the public before entering Brexit talks that would have ended not long before the election that was due in 2020. True hubris would have been to plunge ahead and march on Rome by taking her chances in the 2020 election. Instead her decision to seek a new mandate from the plebs was more akin to the tactics of Augustus when he restored the Senate to avoid an eventual backlash from the people.

Having had simple human confidence in her own political authority she is now dealing with the savage retribution handed out not by the gods but by the voters in a very messy post-Article 50 political landscape.

By Stewart Vickers @VickHellfire

The post Election: Was May’s Problem Really “Hubris”? appeared first on Felix Magazine.