Tim Rogers: Hubris applies to all

Published 10:57 pm Saturday, March 6, 2010

Good morning.

There is a word that I have been thinking a lot about lately. It is hubris.

Hubris is one of my favorite words because it can be used to sum up a lot of different situations that we see going on around us every day.

In its mostly widely accepted modern definition it means overbearing pride, presumption or arrogance. Originally, it was a word used by the Greeks to describe someone who thought he had the goods to challenge the gods, thus, in effect, see himself as godlike.

The fact is we see people like this every day, Tiger Woods being only the latest example. We shake our heads in dismay as we watch them being brought back to earth like Prometheus because of their hubris. For whatever reason — money, fame, power or status — they thought they could get away with something that in the end they couldn’t.

I think the word applies to our president these days. Mr. Obama came into office with strong support throughout the country, he won the popular vote by 9.5 million votes, and strong majorities in both the House and Senate.

He ran, he said, to bring change to the way government worked and make it more responsive to the people. What has happened, however, is sadly what happens to many politicians, both Democratic and Republican.

They grasp the reins of power, but seem to forget what got them there in the first place.

Obama was right when he said most people would like to see changes made in the way our health care system works. It is expensive, often way too confusing and congested with red tape, and it has kicked too many people to the side for one reason or another.

But instead of trying to draw everyone together to work on these problems one by one in a truly bipartisan manner, he overreached and brought forth a plan that itself was too confusing, too expensive and easily subject to criticism from people who either didn’t like the plan or the way he went about producing it.

The same is true of his budget. Most Americans are at least somewhat comfortable with the idea of deficit spending. If we weren’t, most of us would be unable to afford a house. What we aren’t comfortable with, however, is the idea of spending trillions of dollars on programs that we didn’t know existed or ever had the chance to say whether we wanted them or not.

Obama didn’t create the national debt, he inherited one that was already badly out of kilter. But instead of taking steps to tell us how we are going to solve it, he has continued to drive it up in an effort, he says, to keep our economy moving forward. He has seemingly become deaf to our pleas to please just stop and consider if all of this new spending is really worth the price we are going to have to pay for it.

Hubris doesn’t just apply to the high and mighty, though. It applies to all of us.

I tell someone that “Sure, I know what they are talking about,” when in truth I have only been in Dalton for a month and a half and have no idea about the local places and customs they are referring to. I do so, I say to myself, to avoid appearing dumb, but in truth it would be far wiser to politely tell the person I need a little more explanation.

I have told my wife that I have taken care of something, and  — honest confession here — the minute we are off the phone started to take care of it.

We focus on the hubris of people like Obama because what they do affects us all, or people like Woods, because they are so often in the public eye.

But I think it is a word that applies to all of us, whether we like it or not.

Teddy Roosevelt famously taught us to walk softly. I think he meant that we should keep our pride inside ourselves and not think that we know everything or have every answer.

That is good advice to avoid getting tripped up by the pitfalls we encounter every day.

Tim Rogers can be reached at 706-272-7735 or timrogers@daltoncitizen.com.