The myth of Icarus is a cautionary tale for all times.  Flying too close to the sun with wax wings has predictable results. This is very much a tale for our time. Myths are truth that instruct with undeniable, universally accepted facts organized brilliantly on a storyline. In this case, youthful hubris results in the untimely end of a young man named Icarus. He and his father Daedalus, who are attempting to flee King Minos, strapped on wings of feathers, wax and leather. Unfortunately Icarus did not heed his father’s warning and flew too close to the sun only to melt the wax and fall to his death. 

Hubris is the important second word in this short posting about this election. Hubris is excessive pride, or over confidence. In my Google search I came upon this statement from an old friend ours called Aristotle: “Aristotle defined hubris as “doing and saying things at which the victim incurs shame, not in order that one may achieve anything other than what is done, but simply to get pleasure from it”. If this sounds like anyone in this election season, and you don’t want your country to collapse under one persons hubris, vote for that person’s opposition. Hubris is genuinely cruel and the pain incurred by the victim is only strategic on the perpetrator’s part.

A presumptive emperor will deteriorate with unfettered access to power and options. This country needs help and mentoring at many levels right now, not an emperor without clothes and covered in melted wax from flying higher than their level of competence. Mentoring is the relational route to radical change that minimizes the pain, adjustment and discomfort resulting from necessary change. Mentoring rides on affection not anger. Mentoring could save this democracy that desperately needs a route to radical adjustment and change in a rapidly changing world.