"I disobeyed because the law was not The law of Zeus nor the law ordained By Justice, Justice dwelling deep Amont the gods of the dead. What they decree Is immemorial and blinding for us all. The proclamation had your force behind it But it was mortal force, and I, also a mortal, I chose to disregard it. I abide By statutes utter and immutable-- Unwritten, original, god given laws."
-Antigone, from Sophocles' Antigone
The meaning of this passage is so inherent in the descions we make concerneing our morals and laws in today's world. It means that higher law, the law of god, is more important that 'lower' laws, laws made by man.
What do I mean by this? Some of America's most polarizing political topics stem from religious beleifs: abortion and gay marriage. The very heart of the debate is whether or not they are 'moral'. The morality comes from a higher power, it is divinely ordained.
We pride ourselves as a secular nation, seperating church and state.
Hubris is defined as excessive self-confidence by the Old English Dictionary. Most would agree, hubris isn't an attribute anyone should strive to posess. Not surprisingly though, we see it in many successful people, especially in the business world. Not only hubris, but hubris that leads to an eventual fall. This makes sense. If you are doing well, if you are successful, then it is natural to feel confident in yourself. As you reach success, you become overconfident in your abilities and begin to fall. As the saying goes, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Take for example a study in the magazine, The Speculator, conducted by Victor Niederhoffer and Laurel Kenner. Using companies featured on the front cover of Forbes as their variables, they conducted an experiment to see how a company's performance in the stock market would be affected by their appearance on Forbes. Every company featured on the cover from 1997 to the present were studied. The trend was that companies would perform an average of five percentage points worse than the market in the month following their Forbes cover and in line with the market for five months after that.
"...companies perform worse than the market in the month after appearing on the cover of Forbes."
What does this mean? Simply put, companies who experience hubris also experience a fall. This doesn't simply apply to business though. We can see this in tragedy as well, more specifically, in Oedipus Rex. In the beginning of the play, we see Oedipus as the hero of Thebes, and he knows it. He acts as the end-all, be-all of the city, the supreme power. He truly thinks of himself in the highest regard and lets everyone else know as well. He deserves it too. He did save the city of Thebes from the Sphinx after all. This confidence, however, is partly to blame for his fall. Thus, we see that it is not only people in the business world that are hurt by hubris, but tragic heroes as well. Heroes who have hubris fall, but usually in a much more dramatic fashion
Dan Ariely shows us just how much control we actually have over our decisions in his interesting, witty presentation given at TED Global 2008.
Illusions are all around us. Some of the most recognizable illusions are optical illusions. Here is one shown in Dan Ariely's TED presentation:
Which table is longer?
The answer, in fact, is neither.
Take a ruler and measure for yourself
This image deceives our vision, arguably one of our most used mental functions. What if something tricked a mental capacity we use much less often, say, our cognitive thinking? Actually, it happens all the time. These illusions are what Ariely coins as"cognitive illusions". They influence, specifically, our decision making ability.
Take for example the pricing of print and web subscriptions for The Economist. When given the following choices, the percentage of consumers who bought each category is as such:
Print only: $89.00.........................16%
Web only: $125.00........................0%
Print and web: $125.00...................84%
We see that the web only and the print and web options are priced the same. Obviously, some mistake was made. Predictably, no one bought the web only option. However, when this 'useless' middle choice is removed, we see a drastic change in the market shares:
Print only: $89.00.........................68%
Print and web: $125.00...................32%
What just happened? People are given virtually the same choices. In both cases, they would get the same product. Why would the print and web choice become less popular after middle choice is removed? Think about it like this. When the web only choice is present, you are made to 'realize' that the print and web choice is actually a 'fantastic' deal. So even if you don't need the web subscription, it 'makes sense' to get the print and web deal, because you are 'saving' money. However, once the web only choice is removed, you pretty much have two choices, with or without web. If you don't need web, why would you buy it? Thus, the lower market share.
Descisions like these are all around us, and if we study them, they all of them point to one general principle. The choices you make may already be decided for you. It is not what you want that is the most important thing, it is how those wants are presented to you. This ties into tragedy, as many of our tragic heroes are fated to doom. Fate is what we call it when your decisions are already made for you. Sound familiar?
Many have an assumption about tragedy, thinking that it is simply a gloomy and depressing story. This, however, could not be further away from the truth. Quite the contrary, according to Joseph Krutch, tragedy celebrates humanity and everything it is capable of.
"Juliet died, but not before she had shown how great and resplendent a thing love could be; Othello plunged the dagger into his own breast, but not before he had revealed that greatness of sould which makes his death seem unimportant."
Tragedy is more than a simple sad story; it reveals the potential of greatness that we all possess. To become a tragic writer, you cannot have a dark outlook on life. If Shakespeare viewed the world like this (as many critics have imagined in his 'Dark Period'), characters such as Romeo, Lear, Othello, and Hamlet would not have come to exist. Optimism is inherent in tragedy. No man can even begin to comprehend it without the ability to beleive in the greatness and importance of man.
Other genres also have 'tragedy' in them. Comedy laughs at the faults of its characters; drama attempts to solve the problems which infallibly arise; melodrama tries to define good and evil, rewarding and punishing its characters based on its definition of justice. Tragedy, however, is the ultimate of all the genres. It uses the faults and ultimate tragedy of its characters to express a potential for greatness inherent in humanity. Unfortunately, also makes it the one of the more difficult of the genres to conceive.
These ideas come from the essay "The Tragic Fallacy", written by Joseph Krutch.
He kills his father, sleeps with his mother, and then gouges his eyes out. Does that not seem tragic? But seriously, what is tragedy? Let's recap.
1. We need a tragic hero. That, of course, is Oedipus. He is the hero of Thebes, vanquisher of the Sphinx. He certainly acts like he thinks he's a hero. Near the beginning of the play, we see Oedipus viewing himself as someone who can do no wrong; he knows everything (or at least, thinks he does.)
2. We need the tragic mistake. Clearly, a mistake is made somewhere. Oedipus, learning his prophesied fate, took every action he could to live as far away from his 'parents' as he could. This, unfortunately, was his mistake. As Aristotle so eloquently put it,
"The change to bad fortune which he [the tragic hero] undergoes is not due to any moral defect or flaw, but a mistake of some kind."
Oedipus was not flawed in his reasoning; he truly didn't want to marry his parents. However, because of these actions, because of this mistake, he wound up fulfilling the prophecy: killing his father and sleeping with his mother.
3. We need the tragic fortune, possibly including death. Check, check, and check. No disputing this one. First, Laius dies, albeit unknowingly, by the hands of his own son, the very son who he flung off a cliff as a baby with his ankles tied. Second, Oedipus sleeps with his mother, even raising children with her, causing Jocasta to hang herself. Death, what a shocker in a tragic story. Finally, Oedipus drives pins into his eyes, all documented in the most gruesome manner possible.
