Hubris vs. reverence in Iraq

Hubris is easy to spot in other people, harder in ourselves. Volunteers for the First Crusade shouted “God wills it!” in various languages, thinking they knew the mind of God well enough to be sure that God wanted them to kill people. That’s hubris. Reverence—the opposite of hubris—feels that God is beyond full understanding by human beings. 

Nouri al-Maliki, prime minister of Iraq, thought he could get away with mistreating Kurdish and Sunni citizens of his country. That was hubris, and the country is paying for it now. Here at home, some voices are calling for us to engage in Iraq with weapons or planes or soldiers. That too is hubris.

The force of arms will not heal the conflict between Sunni and Shia. Religious issues do not go away when an army moves in—as Euripides showed in the Bacchae, 2,500 years ago. In the play, a king tries to drive out a new religion by force of arms. It is hubris, and he dies for it.