Hubris, Nemesis, and Government Ethics
In the October 28 issue of the <i>New York Review of Books</i>, there is <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/oct/28/moral-brink/" target="”_blank”">an
essa</a>y by the excellent South African novelist J. M. Coetzee on
Philip Roth's series of four novels, concluding with the brand new one, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Nemesis-Philip-Roth/dp/0547318359" target="”_blank”">Nemesis</a>.
Coetzee
shows how Roth has dealt in these novels with the classical
concept of Nemesis, "the spirit of divine retribution against those who
succumb to hubris," as it is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemesis_%28mythology%29" target="”_blank”">defined in
Wikipedia</a> ("hubris" is a combination of pride and arrogance).
Nemesis (a goddess) involves fate, humbling, and indignation at
perceived injustice (two of the other four Roth
novels are called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Humbling-Vintage-International-Philip-Roth/dp/030…; target="”_blank”">The
Humbling</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Indignation-Vintage-International-Philip-Roth/dp/…; target="”_blank”">Indignation</a>).
A
modern word for the result of Nemesis' retribution would be
"comeuppance."<br>
<br>
This sounds like something out of an ethics scandal. Local boy
moves from the council into the mayor's office, with hopes for higher
office. He's fought hard to get where he's gotten and, to get what's
due to him and help him move on, he sets up a pay-to-play program,
making sure that
developers and contractors not only give him more money than he needs
to get re-elected (so he can hand it around and get a lot of IOUs), but
also give to his favorite charities, including the Mayor's Cup golf
tournament, which give people throughout his area, not to mention
celebrities, a warm feeling about him.<br>
<br>
He slips up, or someone gets fed up and leaks the story, or some little
accident of fate occurs. Nemesis strikes, and the bigger they are, the
harder they fall.<br>
<br>
In ethics scandals, it is often the
politician's indignation at perceived injustice that does more damage
than the actual ethics violation. Instead of admitting what his hubris
led him to, the hubris
leads him to deny what happened or to defend himself by, for example,
saying that what he did was legal, or
that the whole thing is just a political vendetta, an act of malicious
envy.<br>
<br>
Better that the mayor take his dose of nemesis as a humbling,
accept his fate,
whether it be a big fine or resignation, and use the occasion as the
warning it should be to others in his position. When he does this,
there will likely be a
few acts left after the play seems over.<br>
<br>
Whatever happens, the public loves to watch the comeuppance. There is a
hubris of the public, as well, a feeling that we are better than they
are, and that they can't be trusted to run the community (but we would
be). The public also likes to play the role of Nemesis, clamoring for retribution. The public likes to look up to giants,
but also likes to see them fall, especially when they've shot
themselves in the foot.<br>
<br>
The tragedies of old, when the son of a king could accidentally kill
his father and marry his mother, through no fault of his own, and end
up blind, destitute, and in exile (see <i>Oedipus Rex</i>) — these don't
happen often in
modern ethics matters. I suppose an equivalent would be a mayor who
sells city land to one developer (whom he's figuratively in bed with, and unbeknownst to him is his mother), thereby killing the project of another developer (who happens to be his father). Someone makes an anonymous tip, he ends up before an ethics
commission, and he is forced to resign and leave town ("Sure, you didn't know she was your mother!"). This
story line doesn't rise above the level of soap opera.<br>
<br>
A major change has occurred that seriously changed things for
us Americans: the Protestant view that people are responsible for
what
happens to them, which became the American view. That is also the
predominant view held by the protagonist
of Roth's novel <i>Nemesis</i>. The classical view isn't that everything that
happens to us is our fault. It's that if we seek to fly too high, and
take pride in and enjoyment from our flight, we're bound
to fall. It's fate, not guilt that's at issue.<br>
<br>
Roth's protagonist does the opposite of what too many politicans
do: he immerses himself in guilt, concerned with how he brought
down others' lives. Refusing to take the chance of polluting others
with what he feels is his badness, he exiles himself from all those who
loved or admired him, and pretty much everyone else, as well.<br>
<br>
This too is not the best way of dealing with one's humbling. Here too
no one learns anything, or wouldn't have if someone else hadn't told
the story. But at least there is compassion here, a concern for those
one hurts, even when one doesn't mean to. If only politicians with
hubris would think about the effect their conduct has on others, they
might realize that government ethics isn't about being good, but about
doing what best preserves the public's trust in those who manage their
community.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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