by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
PJ Media<\/em><\/p>\n The Self-centered Protagonist<\/strong><\/p>\n The blueprint of a Sophoclean or even Euripidean tragedy is pretty straightforward. A confident, cocky tragic hero for about the first 600 lines of the play exhibits unconstrained exuberance as he takes on the world.<\/p>\n For an ancient fawning, first-half-of-the-play Greek chorus, read instead a contemporary Chris Matthews,\u00a0Newsweek<\/em>, or the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n The early Oedipus basks in his great wisdom and reason that had solved the riddle of the murderous Sphinx and saved the city. Creon in the Antigone assumes he is the personification of law, order, and stability, a savior regent after the prior mess.<\/p>\n Even in Euripides\u2019\u00a0Bacchae<\/em>, young King Pentheus boasts about his kingly powers and youthful determination to corral the Bacchants \u2014 as he sets himself up for a gruesome fall. Early Hippolytus is a sanctimonious puritan, a sort of insufferable prude (who of course will be falsely accused of fornication). Jason in the\u00a0Medea<\/em>\u00a0prances around as if his dumped wife will agree that it was a wise idea for him to have married a younger, wealthier, and Greek princess. With all these personalities, the first person pronoun \u201ceg\u00f4\u201d is commonly employed. They know at first no self-doubt. They have no clue that what brought them to such heights are the same characteristics, at the right occasion, and with a tad more hubris, that will ensure their fall.<\/p>\n Beware of Nemesis<\/strong><\/p>\n During these displays of hubris, the flawed characters are warned by various seers, by close associates, and by the sometimes fawning\/sometimes anxious chorus that something is not quite right. They are supposed to check their excesses in time. They are advised to seek the golden mean, calm down, and avoid nemesis. But how can they really, when it is all such fun, this being full of oneself that heretofore has brought them so easily so far?<\/p>\n (Not to be partisan: Somewhere around early May 2003, with sky-high ratings, the quick toppling of the Taliban and Saddam, and at the zenith of his popularity and confidence, George Bush may well have assumed that Iraq would\u00a0ipso facto<\/em>\u00a0lead to more dominos falling \u2014 even beyond a Syria terrified and about to leave Lebanon, Dr. Khan soon to be arrested in Pakistan, and Libya about to cough up its WMD program. These were the \u2018smoke \u2018em out\u2019, \u2018bring \u2018em on\u2019, and \u2018mission accomplished\u2019 days. But after the insurrection and 4,000 dead in Iraq, by 2008 Bush\u2019s greatest encomiasts conveniently flipped into his greatest critics, and his once most fawning lieutenants wrote the most lurid tell-all books. After his crash in the polls, I found a great deal of dignity in Bush in 2008-9, especially in the way he ignored vicious hatred, ordered the surge, did not tar his opportunistic former supporters, and in general showed a wisdom and philosophical side not found in 2002-3. He was more an Oedipus at Colonus that Oedipus Rex)<\/p>\n And Now The Second Half of the Play<\/strong><\/p>\n We\u2019ve just about finished Obama\u2019s first 600 lines. Do we remember a year ago when his various aficionados lamented that the poor Constitution required a lame-duck continuance between election and inauguration, and thus America had to suffer nearly three months of the hated Bush before the Ascension?<\/p>\n Those were heady times of tingling legs, the President as a \u201cgod,\u201d schoolgirls singing of the great one, and instantaneous Nobel Prize nominations. Valerie Jarrett cooed (literally) about the prospect of recruiting the brilliant activist Van Jones. To suggest that the nominations of Tom Daschle, Timothy Geithner, Bill Richardson, or Hilda Solis were antithetical to the entire Obama reformist campaign was heresy or worse. Did Obama think all this would continue for eight years? Did he think al Qaeda would put away their IEDs because his middle name was Hussein? Was Putin awed that America had elected an African-American? Did Chavez hang on every Harvard-Law-School-Review \u201chope and change\u201d banality?<\/p>\n Cracks in the Fa\u00e7ade<\/strong><\/p>\n That first interview with\u00a0Al Arabiya<\/em>\u00a0gave us a foretaste of two subsequent themes: the apology for what America had purportedly done, and what a Barack Hussein Obama, of postracial, postnational magnetism, could offer as redress. (At the time, a bewildered foreign student of about 21 asked me of all this apologizing abroad, \u201cWhy does Obama listen to those who trash America when most of them can\u2019t even keep their electricity going, or their streets free of sh-t?\u201d)<\/p>\n Did any of his advisors then warn our young Hippolytus to hush \u2014 and limit the apologies to a single occasion? (Or to remind him that a President is elected to keep his country safe and its interests paramount, not to be judged a Gandhi by a mostly corrupt global media).<\/p>\n Those of us who wrote about these telltale signs even then were suspected of racism, as our great leader pressed on with apologies, bows, crazy appointments, and a strange sort of split personality.<\/p>\n Mr. Barack<\/strong><\/p>\n Obama I, for example, cynically embraced much of the Bush agenda that, just weeks earlier, he had branded as either unconstitutional or dangerous. We had seen that about-face with public financing during the campaign, but the shamelessness by which yesterday\u2019s shredding of the Constitution suddenly transmogrified into (albeit quietly) a sober and judicious anti-terrorism tool was quite stunning. An Iraq lost to a \u201cnot working\u201d surge that should be vacated by \u201cMarch 2008\u201d suddenly became a success due to Obama\u2019s \u201cwinding down the war.\u201d<\/p>\n In\u00a0Animal Farm<\/em>\u00a0fashion, tribunals, renditions, Predators, wiretaps, and intercepts were now suddenly rewritten on the barn wall \u2014 as were the strictures against lobbyists. We got doctrinaire Chicago-style, take-no-prisoners sleazy politics \u2014 that saw everything from buying off those in the Congress with huge largess to predicating stimuli distribution of the basis of political fealty \u2014 as the signature of the greatest reformer and ethicist in presidential history.<\/p>\n And as a sop to the left, the base at least received false promises to close Guantanamo within a year, new euphemisms like \u201cman-made disasters\u201d and \u201coverseas-contingency operations,\u201d and supposed promises to try KSM, the grand planner of 9\/11, in New York (I wager that vow will be Guantanamoized).<\/p>\n And Dr. Obama<\/strong><\/p>\n But then in a sudden fit, Obama II would appear as an extreme statist, far beyond what we had seen in the Democratic Party since Jimmy Carter and the first few weeks of the Clinton administration.<\/p>\n Thus came the wars against Fox News, the tea parties and town-halls, the promises of gargantuan new taxes, the mega-deficits, the ramming through of government-controlled healthcare, cap-and-trade on the horizon, and always that loony partisanship \u2014 at NEA a boast of a creepy sort of grants for obeisance and Obama as the new Caesar, at the Justice Department the dismissal of the voting intimidation by the Black Panthers, and the attack on the CIA, and abroad the constant blame Bush\/reset button rhetoric.<\/p>\n The more observers warned Obama that this was hardly reaching across the aisle and bipartisanship, that Bush was not quite as bad as charged (cf. his successful anti-terrorism protocols, the winning surge in Iraq, and the good relations with Britain, France, Germany, India, and China), and that hypocrisy had reached new levels even for Washington (a tax violator at Treasury would enforce tax law shepherded through the Congress by an even greater tax violator overseeing Ways and Means), the more our Oedipus railed and shunned advice.<\/p>\n More on the Second Half of Obama\u2019s Tragedy Later\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n But, wait, a final thought: not since 9\/11 have so many terrorist plots been uncovered in a single year. (In fact, over one-third of all the efforts to repeat 9\/11 have occurred in 2009 \u2014 just as the United States has made unprecedented efforts to renounce the prior war on terror, to demonize a prior President, to use euphemism, to bow and apologize abroad, to turn war into jurisprudence, and to reach out to the Muslim world. Perhaps our Oedipus can determine whether there is a connection?)<\/p>\n \u00a92010 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media The Self-centered Protagonist The blueprint of a Sophoclean or even Euripidean tragedy is pretty straightforward. A confident, cocky tragic hero for about the first 600 lines of the play exhibits unconstrained exuberance as he takes on the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[610],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-uQ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9480,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/from-greek-tragedy-to-american-therapy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1912,"position":0},"title":"From Greek tragedy to American therapy","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Town Hall | \u00a0 The Greeks gave us tragedy -- the idea that life is never fair. Terrible stuff for no reason tragically falls on good people. Life's choices are sometimes only between the bad and the far worse. In the plays of the ancient\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Europe"","block_context":{"text":"Europe","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":894,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-sick-man-of-europe\/","url_meta":{"origin":1912,"position":1},"title":"The Sick Man of Europe","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Defining Ideas Why are the Greeks such whiners? Look to their tragic history and geography.\u00a0 Not long ago, European Union bankers gave the Greeks a \u20ac110 billion bailout \u2014 along with stern recommendations to stop cooking their books, to go after tax cheaters, to trim fat\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/economy-europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7768,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/7768\/","url_meta":{"origin":1912,"position":2},"title":"On Cyprus, the World Is Silent","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Because Turkey is not Israel. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online Limassol, Cyprus\u00a0\u2014 Cyprus is a beautiful island. But it has never recovered from the Turkish invasion of 1974. Turkish troops still control nearly 40 percent of the island \u2014 the most fertile and formerly the richest portion.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Middle East"","block_context":{"text":"The Middle East","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A U.N. peacekeeper in the buffer zone in Anatolia, Cyprus. (Andrew-Caballero-Reynolds) Photo via NRO","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/pic_giant_081414_SM_Cyprus-Bufer-Zone-G.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8502,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/greek-default\/","url_meta":{"origin":1912,"position":3},"title":"Greek Default","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"For almost six years Greece has been on the cusp of financial disaster. by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ National Review Online For almost six years Greece has been on the cusp of financial disaster. Its Northern European and international creditors have extended loans, suspended interest payments, and forgiven some debt. But\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Europe"","block_context":{"text":"Europe","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"\"Death by Euro\" street art in Athens. (Aris Messinis\/AFP\/Getty)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/death-by-euro-500x292.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":954,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/greek-tragedies\/","url_meta":{"origin":1912,"position":4},"title":"Greek Tragedies","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"br Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner There are a lot of new twists to the old story of massive demonstrations in Greece. This is the first time in my life (I first went to Greece in 1973) that I can remember Greek rioting and demonstrations that were not anti-American. Oh,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Greece"","block_context":{"text":"Greece","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5267,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/defending-the-greeks\/","url_meta":{"origin":1912,"position":5},"title":"Defending the Greeks","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 10, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers This talk\u00a0was presented February 28, 2005 at California State University, Sacramento at a dinner hosted by the Tsakopolous Hellenic Foundation in honor of California State Senator Nicholas C. Petris The centrality of the ancient Greeks to the foundations of Western Civilization once was an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1912"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1912"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1913,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1912\/revisions\/1913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}