"The Hubris Syndrome" - An Expose on the Battle Amongst Church & Politicsl Leadership?"

As a Church & Ministry Consultant (Sacred Role)/Management Consultant (Secular Role) since September 1996, and I have seen the GLARING IMBALANCE found in both the religious and the political circles and leadership IN SPADES! Ugh!!

If I’ve had ONE primary reason for wanting to choose another career path and vocation, is because I absolutely “hate” PRIDE and “despise” with an even greater intensity — BAD LEADERSHIP; and, as an OCCUPATIONAL NORM it seems that in both fields; there overrun with people “full of the selves” to the point PEOPLE, COMMUNITY, and SOCIETY suffers..

The Hubris Syndrome, written by Lord David Owen - the former British Foreign Secretary from the late 70's, has quite an interesting take on the noticeable imbalance and blaring dysfunction that is prevalent amongst many "political leaders". While reading the article, it made me think of the state of affairs amongst many "church leaders" that I've encountered in my 29 years of consulting practice and bi-vocational ministry.
 
As I closely reviewed some of the "symptoms" that are associated with this behavior, I thought of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, during his reign with a "mighty hand" that ended up bringing severe humility into his life; alongside the glorious time of servant-hearted leadership and wisdom that proceeded Daniel's prophetic role during the Jewish exiles in Babylon.

The Babylonian Worldview that is prevalent in the world today, is represented by the perverse economic, political and religious system that is finally judged in the Book of Revelations, which brought great destruction and devastation to the nations of the earth through the rampant greed, false balances, corruption, and seduction that was the foundation of it's inner-workings.

Lord Owen goes on to say, "the hubristic career proceeded along something like the following course... The hero wins glory and acclamation by achieving unwonted success against the odds. The experience then goes to their head: they begin to treat others, mere ordinary mortals, with contempt and disdain and they develop such confidence in their own ability that they begin to think themselves capable of anything. This excessive self-confidence leads them into misinterpreting the reality around them and into making mistakes."

Lord Owen continues, "Disillusionment with politicians has grown markedly in recent years and some people will think all politicians are hubristic. But this is not the case with most post-war heads of government in the USA and the UK. Truman, Attlee, Eisenhower, Macmillan, Douglas-Home, Ford, Carter, Callaghan, Reagan, Major and Bush Sr. showed no signs of hubris. Kennedy's cynicism curbed any hubris and his mood was affected by the steroids and amphetamines he was being given by his doctors. The behavioral symptoms in a head of government which might trigger the diagnosis of hubristic syndrome typically grow in strength and are represented by more than three or four symptoms from the following tentative list, before any such diagnosis could be contemplated:

• a narcissistic propensity to see the world primarily as an arena in which they can exercise power and seek glory rather than as a place with problems that need approaching in a pragmatic and non-self-referential manner;

• a predisposition to take actions which seem likely to cast them in a good light - i.e. in order to enhance their image;

• a disproportionate concern with image and presentation;

• a messianic manner of talking about what they are doing and a tendency to exaltation;

• an identification of themselves with the state to the extent that they regard the outlook and interests of the two as identical;

• a tendency to talk of themselves in the third person or using the royal 'we';

• excessive confidence in their own judgment and contempt for the advice or criticism of others;

• exaggerated self-belief, bordering on a sense of omnipotence, in what they personally can achieve;

• a belief that, rather than being accountable to the mundane court of colleagues, or public opinion, the real court to which they answer is much greater: History or God;

• an unshakeable belief that in that court they will be vindicated;

• restlessness, recklessness and impulsiveness;

• loss of contact with reality; often associated with progressive isolation;

• a tendency to allow their 'broad vision', especially their conviction about the moral rectitude of a proposed course of action, to obviate the need to consider other aspects of it, such as its practicality, cost and the possibility of unwanted outcomes;

• a consequent type of incompetence in carrying out a policy, which could be called hubristic incompetence. This is where things go wrong precisely because too much self-confidence has led the leader not to bother worrying about the nuts and bolts of a policy.

It can be allied to an incurious nature. It is to be distinguished from ordinary incompetence, where the necessary detailed work on the complex issues involved is engaged in but mistakes in decision-making are made nonetheless.

Most syndromes of personality tend to manifest themselves in people by the age of eighteen and stay with them for the rest of their lives. Hubristic syndrome is different in that it should not be seen as a personality syndrome but as something which manifests itself in leaders only when in power - and usually only after they have been wielding it for some time - and which then
may well abate once power is lost. In that sense it is an illness of position as much as of the person.

And the circumstances in which the position is held clearly affect the likelihood that a leader will succumb to it. The key external factors would seem to be these: holding substantial power; minimal constraint on the leader exercising such personal authority; and the length of time they stay in power.

An atmosphere of omnipotence can easily grow around any leader, but political leaders are particularly vulnerable, even democratically elected ones.

It is not a condition, usually, which those leaders affected by it bring to office. Rather it appears to develop when heads of government have been in power for a while. Personality traits, though, do seem to make some leaders more susceptible to it than others, and factors to do with the external political situation seem to play a role too.

There is a case for working on the supposition that there is an underlying syndrome in which a combination of signs and features are more likely to appear together than independently, and which may yet be judged by the medical profession as forming a pathological category. I developed this argument in an article for the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, and I hope a debate will now ensue."

WOW! I don't know about you, but as I read this excerpt, my mouth dropped open!

Perhaps, Lord Owen got the clearest picture of the Babylonian influence at work in our midst than some of us "committed Christians"!

The Hubris Syndrome very well may be an "expose of the battle amongst church leaders"!

If you've seen any of these behavioral characteristics with any of your leaders, PRAY for them!

You may be the only interceding or intervening voice that could reach their hearts or God's on their behalf, before it's too late!  WS-3


Sent from Walter's IPAD
Walter L. Smith III (WS-3)