From Dissent 3, 3/18/98
The ancient Greeks warned against hubris, the pride that made people believe they could defy the law, defy the gods. Why? This pride, this hubris, leads to arrogant behavior and a tendency to disregard the rights of others.
Hubris is perhaps the best way to characterize the current jostling for power within the evolving SOCCCD administration and the insolent behavior of the board majority. How else to explain the ascent of Raghu “Narcissus” Mathur, Mike “Ganymede” Runyan, Ken “Midas” Woodward and the other Myrmidons who wait for resignations and the subsequent job announcements?
The union angle? The metamorphosis of union leaders to management stooges is troubling--especially considering the single-minded crusade to diminish faculty power shared by these “faculty” leaders and the administrative colleagues they hope to join. The fingerprints of “acting” administrators are all over the proposed administrative hiring policy--the same policy which will cement their own appointments in months to come.
Unlike the convenient (lecherous Zeus’s sneaky self-changes) or vindictive (the punitive metamorphosis meted out to the presumptuous Arachne) or even compassionate (Daphne’s mutation into a laurel tree) transformations so prevalent in Greek myths, the recent morphing of faculty to management seems steeped in self-interest and nepotism, inspired perhaps by hubris.
What happened to the Greeks who were too full of hubris? Nemesis, the goddess of retribution, was dispatched from Mount Olympus to deal with the offenders. While “nemesis” has come to mean a vengeful opponent, the Greek origin is closer to “distribute”--or to mete out matters evenly. The goddess Nemesis ensures that hardships offset the ill-got fortune gained by hubris. It’s a kind of justice.
Rebel Girl recommends that offerings of thigh bones wrapped in fat and libations be presented to Nemesis at the appropriate alters near you.
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