The Hubris Syndrome
The Hubris Syndrome
Governmental and medical institutions warn us for the dangers of high testosterone and the use of anabolic steroids. High testosterone and the hormones converted from it, such as Dihydrotestosterone and estrogen also work on the brain.
Remember your puberty , most of these young people are sexual obsessed, they show high risk-taking behavior to prove to themselves and the outside world how tough they really are. A friend of mine once said to me that it was a miracle that he survived puberty. It is amazing how much world leaders show the same kind of reckless behavior. Often leading to unbelievable casualties. And not only politicians but also captains of industry, traders and bankers.
John Coates a PhD from the university of Cambridge refers to Lord Owen, a former British foreign secretary and a neurologist by training describing the “hubris syndrome” as “a disorder of the possession of power, particularly power which has been associated with overwhelming success, held for a period of years and with minimal constraint on the leader [which] can result in disastrous leadership and cause damage on a large scale. And Coates further clarifies it writing “This syndrome is characterized by recklessness, an inattention to detail, overwhelming self-confidence and contempt for others.”
Endogenous steroids and financial risk taking on a London trading floor Coates et al 2007
“The financial system, as we have recently discovered to our dismay, balances precariously on the mental health of [financial] risk-takers.” And he mentions testosterone, cocaine and hubris as risk-taking inducers; and cortisol as a risk-aversion generating hormone. “Or was it testosterone, cocaine, or hubris which turned our bank regulators, those who foremost should be on the outlook form unexpected losses, into some risk taking monsters?”
Although psychologists are often wary of acknowledging that hormones play much of a role in human psychology or behavior, the evidence suggests otherwise. Like robins in the springtime, young men are more amorous and more reckless, so that they are more likely to break rules, drive dangerously, and get in fights.
Higher testosterone is associated to drug use, reckless conduct and crime.
When two males enter a fight for turf or a contest for a mate and, in anticipation of the competition experience a surge in testosterone, a chemical bracer that increases their blood’s capacity to carry oxygen and, in time, their lean muscle mass. Testosterone also affects the brain, where it increases the confidence and appetite for risk. We have seen that it also do so by boosting the number of androgen receptor after each win, and therefore the future susceptibility to testosterone. However, at some point in this winning streak the elevated steroids begin to have the opposite effect on success and survival. Animals experience this upward spiral of testosterone and victory have been found after a while to start more fights and to spend more time out in the open (that is to say risky space) and as result they suffer an increased mortality.
The Bathsheba syndrome
Many male politicians are highly competitive. As they rise through the ranks, and with each fight they win, their confidence and appetite for risk gets a further boost. Once they approach or reach the very top, and succeed in staying there for one or two terms, their confidence often gradually seques into overconfidence, and their risk taking into recklessness. They give in to one or more of the seven temptations or deadly sins of politics as redefined here: lust, gluttony, greed, wrath, denial of (mental or physical) illness and pride. If it becomes known, the scandal may cause their downfall. But if their inner circle is complicit, their darkest secrets may only begin to leak out in bits and pieces many years after their retirement or death – when they become a footnote to their history.
A good example is John F. Kennedy. Now we know he abused anabolic steroids, methamphetamines and LSD. Dr. Max Jacobson ( Dr. Feelgood) was John F. Kennedy’s doctor who injected him, his wife and many other celebrities like Elvis and Marilyn Monroe to name a few. The CIA didn’t want him on methamphetamines because the CIA realized that a person on methamphetamines could be very dangerous. Kennedy’s behavior was behavior that was typical of a meth addict. He gravitated between extraordinarily high mania — see, the thing is the more meth you inject, the more it takes to get that feel-good feeling because your brain is being flooded with dopamine and it becomes, like any other drug, resistant to the effects to methamphetamines, so you need more meth to make you feel good. And that was the problem with Kennedy; he kept on upping his doses. And that worried the CIA. And of course, they knew it was going on because they knew what Max Jacobson was doing; they were surveilling his office; and they had their own guy inside Max Jacobson’s office, Mark Shaw. Kennedy began acting out in these bizarre ways. He began running naked through a hotel, through the Carlyle Hotel. He was seeing a lot of call girls and prostitutes. He was having prostitutes come to the White House. He would arrange these acid nations, these trysts with prostitutes in New York. He’d slip away from his Secret Service detail all the time. He was high on meth when he was doing this because one of the effects that methamphetamine has is, besides this feeling of hyper-grandiosity, right — you can rule the world, you’re king of the world, that stuff — it’s also hyper-sexuality. So Kennedy was heavily affected by that. But he was also taking LSD and he was also taking other drugs. So the CIA was very worried about having a president under the influence of these drugs that were making him behave in bizarre ways. The military presence in Vietnam, later disastrous, was a mistake made in 1961, when Kennedy was medically ill and psychiatrically erratic.
Now remember, this is the same drug that’s in chemicals today, Vyvanse, Ritalin and Adderall, for ADHD right? Even though the pills are as strong as street meth – which in any case metabolizes quickly into dextro-amphetamine, the main active ingredient in most ADHD drugs – nobody seems to call this class of drugs by its name: “speed.” How many and who uses this legal high, one may ask. You’d like an answer? 50% of Americans are on a least one prescription drug, and nearly 20% of schoolchildren are on mind-altering amphetamines like Ritalin or antidepressants like Prozac. This mass medication, in every way, a grand medical experiment, is taking place right now.
Shocking Emails Expose George Bush and Tony Blair Plotting Iraq War a YEAR Before the Invasion
In a stunning blow to the official narrative propagated by the Bush administration, recently released, declassified emails have exposed the numerous lies government officials espoused in the months leading up to the war in Iraq.
The emails were received by Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state and were subsequently stored on her private email server. The documents on Clinton’s server have been released due to rulings from US courts.
One email from then-Secretary of State Colin Powell to former President George W. Bush, details an upcoming meeting between the President and British Prime Minister Tony Blair which was to take place from April 5-7th, in 2002. This meeting became known as the Crawford summit and was widely speculated to have been used to discuss the invasion of Iraq. The release of these emails shows that this was, in fact, the case.
Secretary Powell Writes:
“Blair continues to stand by you and the U.S. as we move forward on the war on terrorism and on Iraq. He will present to you the strategic, tactical and public affairs lines that he believes will strengthen global support for our common cause.”
A second memo which was drafted by the U.S. embassy in London, reveals how the Bush administration used ‘spies’ in the British Labor Party to help shape British public opinion in favor of the war.
PM Tony Blair has made publicly clear his commitment to a more proactive Iraq policy. Reflecting the polled sentiments of voters, however, a sizable number of his labor party MP’s remains at present opposed to military action against Iraq. A majority indicate they would change their minds if they had proof of Iraqi involvement in September 11 or another terrorist atrocity. Some would favor shifting from a policy of containment of Iraq if they had recent (and publicly usable) proof that Iraq is WMD/missiles or that Iraq’s WMD status has changed for the worse.
It is no secret that politicians lie to achieve their goals. What this information reveals, however, is the extent to which they will go to achieve these goals.
Following the Crawford summit, a massive propaganda campaign was launched to drum up support for the war. Media began being inundated with threats of terrorism and government officials repeatedly went on the record accusing Iraq of having weapons of mass destruction.
While this may come as a surprise to some Americans, it confirms what many have suspected for years. The U.S. Government and its allies lied to their citizens to promote a war of aggression in order to achieve their political agendas.
The fact that this war was shoved down the throats of citizens, despite worldwide protests against it, is nothing short criminal. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that anyone will be charged for committing this blatant crime against humanity, which has killed over 4,000 American soldiers, over 200,000 Iraqis and has cost American taxpayers in excess of $2 trillion dollars.
When you lie to the government it’s a crime, when the government lies to you it’s politics.
The Hubris Syndrome ( or The Bathsheba syndrome) is not only limited to politicians.
Writer of the book about this syndrome, Lord Owen believes acquired hubris is not limited to politicians. "It exists in bankers," he says.
"If you look at the roots of the 2008-9 crisis you see in many major banks that their chief executives were making decisions based on a lot of the characteristics of somebody suffering from hubris syndrome."
"Excessive winning increases testosterone. That increases [brain chemical] dopamine activity and the reward network," says Ian Robertson, Professor of Psychology at Trinity College Dublin. 
"When you increase dopamine activity too much or for too long a time, you actually disrupt the judgement of the brain."
But also look at General Petraeus, he took the CIA post only 14 months before this amazing career trajectory ended in disgrace. For all his intelligence, his discipline, his drive and his vision, he fell prey to one of the oldest traps into which people can fall. He added his name to a long and pitiful list of business, government and religious leaders who abruptly and publicly fell from grace.
Will it Ever End?
A panel of 16 judges from 11 countries at a people’s tribunal meeting in New York June 10 2000, before 500 people found U.S. and NATO political and military leaders guilty of war crimes against Yugoslavia in the March 24-June 10, 1999 assault on that country. ]
According to the Irish Times, an overwhelming majority of Greeks wanted Bill Clinton and Tony Blair indicted for war crimes. "War crimes:" violations include, but not be limited to, murder, ill-treatment ... of civilian population, ... wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity. NATO committed war crimes. 1,000 civilians, including 45 children were killed and more than 4,500 sustained serious injuries
In an interview with Leslie Stahl of CBS on May 11, 1996, U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright was asked whether the over half a million children killed by the sanctions were "worth it." Her response was: "It’s a hard choice, but I think, we think, it’s worth it. No its not only a male thing!!
I was tempted to post more on politics and add a piece of my mind, but this is a blogpost meant for the “Hubris syndrome. “
I found it nicely summarized on the net:
According to Newsweek's panel of analysts, men cheat for a variety of reasons.
They Want More The problem is that they never seem to get enough excitement. "Their experiences have to be either very new or very intense, or both, or else they get very restless," says Zuckerman. "When things get monotonous, they have to do something else to increase their arousal."
They Like The Thrill
For these types, the risk itself is part of the reward. "Breaking rules is a thrill for them," says Frank Farley, a psychologist at Temple University. "Look at Spitzer: he's Mr. Rectitude, the terror of Wall Street, and he busts prostitution rings, and yet he allegedly goes into that very lions' den--the prostitution ring--and partakes. If that isn't risk-taking I don't know what other label to put on it."
Too Much Testosterone
Alpha males are high on testosterone, the hormone that underlies almost all the typical traits of the politico-sexual animal: high levels of testosterone make for a high sex drive, a love of risks, aggressiveness and competitiveness.
They Want Power
As the saying goes, power is also an aphrodisiac--and that's been true, says Kruger, as long as humans have been around. "In our evolutionary history, men who had lots of resources and status and power were able to have more than one partner. Your body is basically saying if you have this power, you should use it, because that's what has worked before."
They Think They're Invincible
"It does have an element of Greek tragedy to it. There's a certain amount of hubris that goes with getting to the top." "You think you're invincible. You just don't think it could happen to you." Until, of course, it does.
The Hubris Syndrome
The lure of climbing the power pyramid, the desire to stay in power longer, by any means possible, and the political maneuvering for the concentration of power at the helm leads to perpetual wars--validates the axiom that "(A lot of) power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely." This creates a conflict of interest between the people's interests and those of the individual or the clique that rules in their name.
The resulting hubris of excessive pride/arrogance or self-confidence becomes an addiction that feeds on conflicts. In ancient Greek, the word hubris often referred to actions that shamed and humiliated the victim for the pleasure or gratification of the abuser and in Greek tragedy excessive pride toward or in defiance of the gods, led to nemesis. The defiance of gods, ancient or modern, seems to carry its own curse. In our times this often overlooked problem seems to be the hubris syndrome resulting from a sense of entitlement among leaders who try to hold on to their office beyond their terms. They justify this lingering on by creating crises and making wars and thus making themselves indispensable in resolving them. The wars these politicians start tie them to the military whose reciprocated support turns these politicians into dictators.
Addiction to power, like every other kind of addiction, demands continuous gratification. This is why holding on to power evolves from a symptom to a syndrome of hubris that manipulates political circumstances to serve an individual's pathological obsession. Their addictions need conflicts to divert the citizenry's attention from the legitimacy of extending their rule to foreign adventures and military campaigns.
Leaders who are addicted to power want to stay in power at any cost, but leaders who rise to power suddenly and who have not had the chance to develop the syndrome like Deng Xiaoping, Lech Wałęsa, Václav Havel, and Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela leave their leadership post happily and often with greater achievements in a relatively shorter time. On the other hand those who change constitutions, and change their titles and/or posts to remain the de facto leaders of their countries like Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Robert Mugabe, among others, become obsessed with power. The signs of hubris syndrome may be observed in their cracking down on their opponents, but even more dangerously in their military adventurism. Other techniques that political leaders with hubris syndrome use to stay in power include developing a personality cult like Stalin and Tito, shielding themselves from the public in layers of circles like the Kim Il-Sung dynasty, or simply putting on the mantle of authorityas military dictators like Gadhafi and the Assads.
Other politicians have developed the hubris syndrome before formally coming to power. Their term of office may not necessarily have been long, but their warmongering agenda as an indication of a pathological disorder may have already been set in motion. The ideological camaraderie between Bush and Blair in dragging the world into the Middle Eastern quagmire.
Political leaders who end up staying in power generally longer than 6 to 8 years develop the hubris syndrome. They insulate themselves from the people with a corrupting inner circle and in turn from the democratic process. They may have come to power democratically, but they tend to stay in power autocratically.
This self-serving syndrome feeds on its own miseries as violent military conflicts frequently produce conflicted personalities. Many political leaders have displayed signs and symptoms of psychopathic behavior. We hear about the post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD amongst the war veterans, but political leaders of these conflicts are not immune to this and suffer from variants of the disorder. They are often shielded by the government PR and 'manufactured consent' in order to protect their 'national' image, as well as by the collaborative media, and by the attitude of a celebrity-worshiping public who deceive themselves into believing in a strong and invincible leader.
This hubris syndrome is an illness that needs serious therapy. Without an in-depth understanding and analysis of this systemic power hunger and power addiction and a well-thought out remedy, peace advocacy and peace preservation are but misplaced expectations.
