Obscene Hubris- Atrocious Arrogance-

An essay on ancient antecedents to American transgressions- Brian Keeler

There was a principle in ancient Greece that informed the society in a profound way. It was called xenia and it is translated as hospitality or the guest/host relationship, also thought of as respect and honoring visitors. It was part of the fabric of society and apparently a requisite for travel as there were few lodgings. Not many hotels on the Appian Way apparently.

Above- a painting by the author, titled, "Icarus and Daedalus- Over Cayuga" the myth of father and son of ancient Crete has been reinterpreted here in a contemporary context. This myth is one of the main stories of ancient Greece to exemplify hubris- flying too close to the sun- Helios. The other main theme is biblical, that being the tower of Babel being an affront to God, with mankind being punished as with Icarus.

Divine retribution or karma-

A violation of this principle of xenia, (and so many others) has played out on our national stage recently with disturbing effects, as it should. Like so many other violations of principle by the current occupier of the White House, some become astounding for their absence or morality, and general dearth of principle. In these cases it is a violation of common courtesy. I am referring of course to the two televised conferences in the oval office, one with the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky and the other, the South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa.

We don't need to reference ancient principles of decorum to be aghast at the sheer vulgarity and violation of norms that Donald Trump represents, as any thinking person can see what a preposterous amoral buffoon he is. For this to play out on a nationally televised broadcast is really beyond the pale. And to further the affront, the photos and videos foisted on us and his guest have been proven to be from other events in other countries. In short, they are bogus. Geeze, one would think that someone on Trump's team could fact check evidence. Then again we may recall his wife, Melania using a plagiarized script for two of her public speeches. Trump says that he's learned a lot from his previous presidency, but apparently the wrong lessons.  One friend referred to these attacks on visitors to the White House as the equivalent of a gang rape. Hence the obsenity charge here. The sad thing is that some think this behavior smart and condone these public attempts to humiliate friends and allies.

Even worse, is that these lies, false evidence and vacuous ethics displayed actually betray other aspects that are equally reprehensible.  The interaction with  Zelensky showed a US president condoning and supporting another tyrant and in essence rewarding aggression.  And to show his true colors his main goal was to secure mineral rights from Ukraine in his typical transactional approach to global issues. As the saying goes, he knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.  With Ramaphosa and the related issue of offering asylum to white Afrikaners, it betrays a deep-seated racism now enacted as national policy with international relations.

There are some lights of integrity and principle in the news today. Most notably coming from Bridget Brink, the former US ambassador to Ukraine, who recently resigned as a matter of principle, as she was unable to standby and watch Trump and Vance work in cahoots with Putin. Here is what she said on a recent PBS Newshour"

It was absolutely devastating and horrifying. And to see that firsthand was something that left a big impression me. I agree that the war needs to end, but the policy of the Trump administration was to put pressure on the victim, Ukraine, rather than on the aggressor, Russia.

And peace at any price is not peace. It's appeasement. And we know from history that appeasement only leads to more war. The specific thing that started my questioning, could I remain implementing the president's policy, it wasn't a quick decision. It was when I took over about three months, the first three months of the administration.

In regards to this appeasement, we may think of Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister of Britain (1937- 40) who attempted simlar brown-nosing of Hitler prior to World War II. And how did that work out?

Above- a small oil by the author of another myth from ancient Greece. This painting titled "Urban Minotaur" is also part of the hubris concept or a cautionary tale. King Minos of Crete refused to sacrifice to the Gods and as a consequence his Queen fell in love with a bull- the result being this, half beast and half man.

Other Corollaries- Thermopylae and Icarus in ancient Greece

The ancient principle of Hubris almost goes without saying- as the inflated ego and egocentric nature of the DT is evident to anyone as well as many experts.  Still, we wonder when humpty dumpty will finally fall and crack his shell or in regards to the Gods, when the defiance and arrogance will result in divine punishment.

There are other ancient corollaries worth noting as well,  one is from the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC when the Spartan King Leonidas held off the far superior Persian army at a mountain pass in Greece. They were ultimately betrayed by one of their own.  We can easily see Ukraine as the embattled modern version of the brave Greeks holding off the bear of the Soviet Union. Now, instead of coming to the aid of  the modern day Leonidas, the DT has filled the role of the traitor and in essence he's in cahoots with Putin. 

Above - Peter Bruegel's paiting of 1560 is titled, "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus". Only the lower legs of Icarus are shown protruding from the ocean, in the lower right. The theme of the painting is a commentary on hubris from the ancient Greco-Roman myth.

We go about our business and daily lives, as with the ploughman and shepherd in the painting above by Bruegel, while the daily news is replete with atrocities, mostly self-inflicted and manufactured from a tyrant in the White House.  Some have opined that our democracy is already a lost cause.   When public officials are cowed in acquiescence, corporate leaders hedging their bets and editing their criticisms, colleges and universities held in fear and everyday citizens not to mention foreign students and legal immigrant constantly looking over their shoulders for ICE  Nazis- we know that our long held American ideals of due process and respect for the law are on the precipice.

I have a prediction-- in keeping with the pattern of transgressions and moral inversions coupled with racism:   President Trump will pardon the perpetrator of the recent arson attack on the home of Pennsylvania Governor, Josh Shapiro.  Seems unthinkable on the face of it, and I hope I am proven wrong. But it fits with similar pardons of other criminals like the people who attacked the US Capitol on Jan 6 or the release of Joe Arpaio, the Maricopa County Sheriff in Arizona, it is not far-fetched.  In today's NY Times (Sunday, May 24) on the front page, we learn that there is a national effort to pardon the police officer who killed George Floyd. This atrocity was once condemned universally. Now even obvious transgressions like police brutality are being reconsidered and rebranded as virtue.

A Dance with Dollars- or The new Golden Calf

And what about the damned emoluments clause, protecting the constitution and so much more.  The corruption and abuse is off the scale and if not obscene hubris, it is crass commercialism on a gargantuan scale- while undermining and sweeping aside just about every principle of governance. From his memcoins, to last week's dinner to promote his $TRUMPS scam, the excesses of principle pile up.   Many of those who came were there with the intent of influencing the president and his policies for financial gain (theirs and Trumps)- exactly what is not supposed to happen according to the emoluments clause.  The corruption is at once vile, vast and outfront.  Take for example Don Jr.'s club in Georgetown with the unthinkable name of the Executive Branch. The emoluments clause of the Constitution is there to prevent the presidency from accepting gifts from foreign governments or enriching themselves due their office. Another parallel from ancient history,  "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts," can be understood as the gift of the $300 million dollar plane from Qatar as the modern equivalent of a Trojan horse.  As the above subtitle alludes, the biblical injunction of worshipping the Golden Calf of the ancient Hebrews is easily seen as relevant today. The Late Pope Francis said so in reference to world governments.

There are some lessons and equivalence for ancient antecedents to money as a motivating factor for national interest. Carthage, the city at the center of the Punic Wars, has been described as "Carthage Inc.," to underscore their financial prerogatives.   Their motivations seemed to be based on mercantile considerations rather than imperial or idealistic mandates. Even the Trojan war is said to have resulted from shipping rights rather than over Helen of Troy.  But even the pragmatic priorities of yore pale in comparison to the motivations of the American huckster-in-chief.  Take his designs on the Gaza strip as an opportunity to build glitzy Trump golf courses and high rises.  This would be risible if it were not so tragic in the light of the immense human suffering that has taken place in the Mideast.  

Maureen Dowd, in the Sunday, May 25 edtion of the NY Times has an excellent column titled, "Dance$ with EmolumentS" where she reports on the corruption flung in our faces:

“The guy promised to make American families more prosperous,” David Axelrod said. “He just decided to start with his own.” In a galaxy long ago and far away, there was shame attached to selling your office. Sherman Adams, President Dwight Eisenhower’s chief of staff, lost his job and ruined his reputation after he  accepted a vicuña coat from a Boston textile manufacturer doing business with the federal government.

Trump has no reputable reputation to ruin. He’s a snatch-and-grab artist.

“I think social media and Donald Trump’s persona have numbed people to the idea that certain forms of behavior are off-limits,” Tim O’Brien, a Trump biographer, said. “No institution has been able to rein in Donald Trump. He got impeached twice. Didn’t matter, so Congress couldn’t rein him in. He had all sorts of federal and state prosecutions that ended up going nowhere, so law enforcement couldn’t rein him in. The media has been covering him as close as anyone could ever be covered, and the media couldn’t rein him in. I think it makes people just sort of turn away and accept it as inevitable.”

Can we please just jettison this jerk from our country? The ineptitude of his staff, and the opportunism of his appointees is only commensurate with and exacerbated by our inability as a nation to apply checks and balances.  The judiciary under attack and members of our highest courts being sent pizzas as an act of intimidation is only the latest act of deplorable consequences as result of the DT's name calling and disdain for principle.  Still, can we at least try to impeach this reprobate again?

We hope to attend the Broadway play, Hamilton in NYC next week to see how our own American principles presaged this monstrosity and foretold how we could be undermined by a deranged opportunist like Trump.  Hamilton, the author of the Federalist papers, said this to George Washington in a letter of 1792.

When a man unprincipled in private life, desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper ... despotic in his ordinary demeanor — known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty - when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity - to join in the cry of danger to liberty — to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bring it under suspicion — to flatter and fall in with all the nonsense of zealots of the day — It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that may ride the storm and direct the whirlwind." -

To sum up- the "H" words could be said to be the leitmotif of this essay; hubris, its opposite, humility, humanity and honor. We easily note that there is an excess of hubris in the DT and complete lack of its antidote humility. Hence, we seem to be locked into a labyrinth-like quagmire as with the minotaur or with or a bull in a china shop for the foreseeable future. Whether we call it hubris or blasphemy- the bottom line is the same; a transgression and violation of of principles.

Above- Not all hubris is poorly motivated or self centered. This large charcoal drawing by the author is a 42" x 34" depicts Prometheus- a figure representing forethought, his brother Epitheus represents afterthought. The myth is another example of hubris, in this case stealing fire from the Gods. He was condemned to a fate of having his liver torn out daily by an eagle while chained to a crag on mountain top. The intent here is for benevolent purposes, to help mankind, rather than merely an affront or violation.

A passage from David Brooks recent article in the Atlantic seems the best way to conclude as he eloquently expresses the feeling many Americans are experiencing now. Moral shame. But I think we can relate to his idea of relating to our faith being underpinned by the inherent goodness in America- and to see it veer in such a dramatic way as it is now is disheartening.

Here is an excerpt from David Brooks essay:

"Until January 20, 2025, I didn’t realize how much of my very identity was built on this faith in my country’s goodness—on the idea that we Americans are partners in a grand and heroic enterprise, that our daily lives are ennobled by service to that cause. Since January 20, as I have watched America behave vilely—toward our friends in Canada and Mexico, toward our friends in Europe, toward the heroes in Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office—I’ve had trouble describing the anguish I’ve experienced. Grief? Shock? Like I’m living through some sort of hallucination? Maybe the best description for what I’m feeling is moral shame: To watch the loss of your nation’s honor is embarrassing and painful."