March 7, 2025
    As a young student I read some of the Odyssey and the tales of Odysseus. Odysseus was a man portrayed as egotistical and full of excessive pride (hubris). "Examples of Odysseus' hubris:
Taunting Polyphemus: After escaping the cyclops' cave, Odysseus taunted Polyphemus, which made the cyclops even angrier. Polyphemus then threw a boulder at Odysseus' ships.

Cursing Poseidon: Odysseus cursed Poseidon, which caused bad weather during his journey.

Leaving his family: Odysseus left his wife and son alone while he fought in the Trojan War. While he was gone, suitors threatened his family.

Consequences of Odysseus' hubris:

His men caused destruction and death each time he left them alone.
All of his men died on their journey home.
Despite his flaws, Odysseus was still a respected Greek hero." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odysseus)
    Another written tale is in the bible the book of Genesis. Abraham was a wealthy man who heard the voice of God who promised him the land of Canaan (Israel), a son with his aging wife, and was promised his seed would inherit the earth. As part of this story in Genesis, God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac but at the last moment some angels came to stop Abraham from carrying out this commandment. Much commentary has been written and discussed concerning this story in the book of Genesis. I am no scholar so my opinions are my own. God in this story strikes me as magnanimous, terrifying, and ready to grant huge favors when Abraham follows his commandments. His "seed" follow the dictates of God as commanded. 

    I am reminded of the Millerites. "The Millerites were the followers of the teachings of William Miller, who in 1831 first shared publicly his belief that the Second Advent of Jesus Christ would occur in roughly the year 1843–1844. Coming during the Second Great Awakening, his teachings were spread widely and grew in popularity, which led to the event known as the Great Disappointment." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millerism) Just before the Great Disappointment many thousands of American families relinquished all their worldly wealth believing they would be chosen to enter heaven immediately by the messiah. After the Great Disappointment many of his followers attempted to reinterpret the bible passages with modifications of Miller's approach. One example, of a on offshoot of this group is the current beliefs of the Seventh Day Adventists.  

    I suggest to my reader who have similar beliefs that I am not debating that they change their beliefs which would be hubris and egotistical of me if I did. Rather I'm calling attention to our human biases that may prevent us from changing our minds concerning our core beliefs. We use human a type of reasoning that may be biology based in part so that stories are powerful and may motivate us to actions that enhance the power of people hell bent on ruling over us. So rationalization describes this process but rational thinking relies of observation, objective recording of facts, hypothesis building, and testing of the hypothesis a process that may threaten the rationalizations we harbor. 

    David Brooks in the New York Times Opinion section has labels our tendency to deny the factual data and events that show that our leaders may be misdirecting us, and robbing us of our personal and political freedoms. He uses the word magnanimous to describe these leaders leadership qualities. "The magnanimous man accurately believes he is great and seeks to win triumphs that will bring glory and greatness to his country" (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/opinion/trump-speech-approval.html). He goes on in another opinion speech to describe the Trump Derangement Syndrome. If your a Trump supporter you say this to his opponents who are describing his statements, directives, actions, and comments as untrue and misleading as having this syndrome. You can use this term also to describe Trump and his followers as agreeing and supporting outlandish and untrue statements as facts and just opinions (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/opinion/republicans-trump-derangement-syndrome.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare).  

    So Kige (from my last post) an invented bureaucrat is born, lives, gets married and dies with honors an invention of our imagination. Odysseus a storied hero acts so that tragedy and suffering is directed towards him and his followers partly by his hubris. The religious followers of cult like groups give up their lives, possessions, and interests for a fantasy that they will be lifted to heaven soon.

    Our entertainment choices and industry that is in business to keep us listening, watching, and believing thrive on our enjoyment and maybe thrill seeking interests. Many of us develop an interest in acting which we may have been encouraged to do in our elementary and high school years. To role play is to take on another character and even empathize so completely that during the play or acting role we assume the identity of the character. What if we believe in our everyday lives we are part of a grand play in which as followers we cheer on our savior or power broker whose going to save the day!  Maybe we've convinced ourselves in the drama and excitement of the Trump bullhorns while participating in the audience except we lose sight of the fact that we're playing our role for the husker who may be bamboozingly us all along.  

    Some of the followers of our president rationalize their allegiance and disparage their opponents while the house may be burning and they don't notice it!

Leonard 

                        Chameleon on a hiker's shirt