Hubris, it always proceeds the fall

Submitted by EdMass on Thu, 04/11/2019 - 12:29pm

I present Michael Avenatti:

Hubris:

Hubris Comes From Ancient Greece

English picked up both the concept of hubris and the term for that particular brand of cockiness from the ancient Greeks, who considered hubris a dangerous character flaw capable of provoking the wrath of the gods. In classical Greek tragedy, hubris was often a fatal shortcoming that brought about the fall of the tragic hero. Typically, overconfidence led the hero to attempt to overstep the boundaries of human limitations and assume a godlike status, and the gods inevitably humbled the offender with a sharp reminder of his or her mortality.

Did You Know?

To the Greeks, hubris referred to extreme pride, especially pride and ambition so great that they offend the gods and lead to one's downfall. Hubris was a character flaw often seen in the heroes of classical Greek tragedy, including Oedipus and Achilles. The familiar old saying "Pride goeth before a fall" is basically talking about hubris.

Michael Avenatti says Nike ‘pulled a stunt’ by having him arrested

Avenatti has, meanwhile, denied he tried to shake down Nike, saying he was just working on behalf of one of his clients. He was arrested in New York just 15 minutes after he tweeted he would be revealing a high school and college basketball scandal. Based on the charges in both cases against him, if convicted, Avenatti faces nearly 100 years in prison and potential disbarment as a lawyer.

Now from the streets of LA

IRS, Justice Department announces filing of 36-count indictment against Michael Avenatti

The indictment filed against Avenatti alleges he stole millions of dollars from clients, didn't pay his taxes, committed bank fraud and lied in bankruptcy proceedings. Avenatti said Thursday he will plead not guilty.

But the worst is

Feds seize Michael Avenatti's $4.5million private jet amid tax scandal - but the embattled attorney brushes it off, saying: 'I haven’t used the jet in almost a year'

Federal court records indicated that the six-seat aircraft was purchased on January 30, 2017, and registered to Passport 420, a company co-owned by Avenatti.

Avenatti brushed off the seizure on Wednesday, writing on Twitter: 'Re the "jet seizure" and Fox News’ tabloid journalism - led by moron @ShepNewsTeam [Fox host Shepard Smith]: I haven’t used the jet in almost a year and gave up my interest months ago last year. So they have no idea what they are talking about.'

In a second tweet he added: 'And I almost forgot @ShepNewsTeam- "420" is the model number of the plane not some reference to "marijuana" (oh, horrors). Why are you and your cohorts always so uptight in public but then in private...'

NOOOOO not the jet!

Maybe a corrupt lawyer should not go on CNN and MSNBC over a hundred times and float that he will run for President based on representing an adult entertainer? Nah, the Law won't want to look into him.

Old saying: Never Speak when you can Nod. Never Nod when you can Wink." New addition, Never Wink and don't go on MSM cable news.

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Comments

Submitted by Le Frog on Thu, 04/11/2019 - 1:22pm

Sounds like he is qualified to run for POTUS

I jest!

I won't comment on the allegations except to say he may or may not be guilty, I don't know. I will say that my first thought was "how much of a coincidence is it that the lawyer representing the porn star suing Donald Trump is now facing all these indictments?" A lawyer can't get caught doing anything dodgy without me wondering if it's because of a vindictive Trump witchhunt.

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Thu, 04/11/2019 - 2:19pm

"Hubris Comes From Ancient Greece"

Hmmm.

As usual, "the Greeks had a word for it" (much as the French do when it comes to cooking). So, yes, the word "hubris" comes from the Greek, but hubris itself comes from the nature of humans anywhere and everywhere.

According to the third chapter of Genesis, Satan got Eve to eat the forbidden fruit--and Eve, in turn, got Adam to eat it, too--by promising that eating it would make one like "the gods." And, as best I can tell, the Garden of Eden, which, presumably, was older than Ancient Greece, was somewhere within the land we now call Iraq:

Genesis Chapter 3m verses 3- King James Version

3 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

Alas, Adam was not big on taking personal responsibility, blaming God and Eve for his desire to be like "the gods." Or so the Bible tells us. Perhaps it was more the men who designated themselves the minders of the Bible for so long who figured out a way to blame "mala femina" for literally every ill that happened to mankind? But, I digress...

It's only the word hubris that comes from Greece. The desire to be omniscent and omnipotent lives within each of us.

By the time my son was around four years old, it seemed to me that he was too literal and practical and could use a little magic in his life, a little of feeling as though he wielded some power over his his life and his future. So, one evening, when he asked about a light in the sky, I told him about wishing on the first star he saw, even though I knew he was probably seeing a planet, not a star. Before I told him that, I decided that I would give him whatever he wished for, assuming it would be something relatively simple, like a candy bar or a trip to an amusement

Looking up at the sky, he said with a surprising amount of conviction and focus, "I wish I was king of the whole world." And, he didn't even get to Greece until he was seven.

I also don't agree with the author that overconfidence or pride = hubris.

Btw, did I mention that my son didn't lick being overly literal from the grass?

Submitted by EdMass on Thu, 04/11/2019 - 3:52pm

Wow

@HenryAWallace

Guess I've been schooled.

I thought I was King of the World.

One has to look beyond the common definition. There are greek, roman, hebrew fragments, there is the bible (choose your translation - what about the Gnostic texts? Enoch anyone? Huh huh?). People have devoted their lives to Linguistics, who the heck am I to use a common term in the vernacular of our time.

Could it be the influence of Ancient Alien Theorists? You build Tehuacán, you build Giza, you build Stonehenge, go ahead, try. Hubris indeed.

I blame the Jesuits who edumacated me, I guess?

Hmmm.

As usual, "the Greeks had a word for it" (much as the French do when it comes to cooking). So, yes, the word "hubris" comes from the Greek, but hubris itself comes from the nature of humans anywhere and everywhere.

According to the third chapter of Genesis, Satan got Eve to eat the forbidden fruit--and Eve, in turn, got Adam to eat it, too--by promising that eating it would make one like "the gods." And, as best I can tell, the Garden of Eden, which, presumably, was older than Ancient Greece, was somewhere within the land we now call Iraq:

Genesis Chapter 3m verses 3- King James Version

3 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

Alas, Adam was not big on taking personal responsibility, blaming God and Eve for his desire to be like "the gods." Or so the Bible tells us. Perhaps it was more the men who designated themselves the minders of the Bible for so long who figured out a way to blame "mala femina" for literally every ill that happened to mankind? But, I digress...

It's only the word hubris that comes from Greece. The desire to be omniscent and omnipotent lives within each of us.

By the time my son was around four years old, it seemed to me that he was too literal and practical and could use a little magic in his life, a little of feeling as though he wielded some power over his his life and his future. So, one evening, when he asked about a light in the sky, I told him about wishing on the first star he saw, even though I knew he was probably seeing a planet, not a star. Before I told him that, I decided that I would give him whatever he wished for, assuming it would be something relatively simple, like a candy bar or a trip to an amusement

Looking up at the sky, he said with a surprising amount of conviction and focus, "I wish I was king of the whole world." And, he didn't even get to Greece until he was seven.

I also don't agree with the author that overconfidence or pride = hubris.

Btw, did I mention that my son didn't lick being overly literal from the grass?

—

Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!

Firesign Theater

Stop the War!

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Thu, 04/11/2019 - 4:14pm

Huh?

@EdMass

I commented on only the material in your thread-starting post that appeared to have been written by someone other than you, not anything that I thought you had written yourself. And my comments were not even that critical. I said only that, while the word hubris comes from ancient Greece, hubris is common to all of us.

Submitted by EdMass on Thu, 04/11/2019 - 4:52pm

Please see /s at end of msg

@HenryAWallace

And that was the wiki definition of Hubris. I did not write it. Didn't think I had to source definitions of standard words.

Despite your son's wishes, I am the King of World

Heh!

—

Firesign Theater

Stop the War!

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Thu, 04/11/2019 - 5:37pm

@EdMass

@EdMass

And that was the wiki definition of Hubris. I did not write it.

Exactly what I said in my prior post-- I had not even commented on anything that you had written yourself. Didn't think I had to source definitions of standard words.

Again, huh? I did not fault you at all for not attributing to wiki the text you quoted. I simply said, in response to your claiming that I had "schooled" you, that I had commented only on what appeared to be quoted material, not anything that I thought you had written yourself.

Submitted by EdMass on Thu, 04/11/2019 - 5:52pm

Your sense of humor

@HenryAWallace

Is in the bottom drawer of your dresser.

I apologize I have caused you this distress on the internet.

—

Firesign Theater

Stop the War!

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Thu, 04/11/2019 - 6:47pm

"And that was the wiki definition of Hubris. I did not write it"

@EdMass

And that was the wiki definition of Hubris. I did not write it. Didn't think I had to source definitions of standard words.

So sorry I missed the hilarity in that comment!

Until this post, my participation on this thread consisted solely of commenting
on quoted material in your thread starter, then, trying to explain to you that I neither intended nor gave offense to you. When someone resorts to insulting me personally, though, I am likely to give back as good as I get and then some. I'm passing on that this time, though.

Hope that made you smile.