Saturday, June 7, 2014

Koros to Hubris to Ate to Nemesis

“The fear of humiliation appears to be one of the most powerful motivators in individual and collective human behavior.” ~ Donald Klein

The ancient Greeks noticed a psychological sequence: Koros to Hubris to Ate to Nemesis. Koros meant stability, but it was the stability of a weak man. Then, because they were weak, they were far too liable to Hubris - that overweening Pride of the which the Bible speaks. In reality, they're using the Hubris to cover up that weakness - grandiosity covering up their devalued self.

The next step was Ate - which was madness. That was followed by Nemesis, which is revenge - an attempt to replace humiliation with pride. To be precise, Nemesis is the goddess of fate and retribution.

Of course, this sequence applied to Elliot Rodger. Not lack of gun control, not misogyny...he was first of all a weak man. Perhaps because he was an effeminate half-Asian, possibly with the Asian microdick, short, scrawny, excruciatingly shy and self-conscious, no friends, no girlfriends, weak father, pampering mother, cruel stepmother, raised in a shallow, hedonistic culture.

A weak man, terrible self-image, who became afflicted with Hubris, went insane (Ate)...and then came Nemesis.

I’ve heard Koros described as a kind of avarice -- and had those ancient Greeks been Christian, they would have called it one of the Seven Deadly Sins. Those afflicted with Koros are far, far more likely to fall into the Seven Deadly Sins.

“The most dangerous men in the world are the ones who are afraid they are wimps.” -James Gilligan

"Tyranny...finally develops into a disease. The habit can...coarsen the very best man to the level of a beast. Blood and power intoxicate...the return to human dignity, to repentance, to regeneration, becomes almost impossible." - The House of the Dead, Dostoevsky

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