Herman Cain, the Self-Made Man: On the path to Destruction from the Sin of Hubris [102*]
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Hubris Strikes Again
IF YOU GO TO Wikipedia, you find under HUBRIS the following:
"In ancient Greece, hubris (ancient Greek ὕβρις) referred to actions that shamed and humiliated the victim for the pleasure or gratification of the abuser.[1] The term had a strong sexual connotation, and the shame reflected on the perpetrator as well. It was most evident in the public and private actions of the powerful and rich. The word was also used to describe actions of those who challenged the gods or their laws, especially in Greek tragedy, resulting in the protagonist's fall."
Today, Herman Cain is the latest example of the destructive power of Hubris! More current definitions go like:
"extreme haughtiness, pride or arrogance. Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one's own competence or capabilities, especially when the person exhibiting it is in a position of power."
Yep, still sounds like Herman Cain to me ... and thousands upon thousands of other powerful men, and more recently, women; it goes with the territory don't you see. I don't excuse what Herman Cain probably, yes, I say probably, did, but, at the same time, I am not surprised; as I said, it comes with the territory. Can't you picture President Clinton wagging his finger at you as he denied having sex "with that woman"?
It is just a fact that is supported by tons of empirical evidence that shows the more successful and powerful you become, regardless of your sex, the more likely you are to commit sexual harassment and/or sexual assault. Generally, if you are one of the ones guilty of these actions, you often 1) don't think what you are doing is wrong, 2) the person you are doing it to actually wants it or entices you to do it, 3) the victim deserved it, and/or 4) you will never be caught; I suspect 1, 2, and 4 are mostly the case. This is why I say it is "probable" that Herman Cain is guilty of what these five (so far) women say he has done; if he didn't, then all four victims and the three corroborating witnesses must be lying, not likely.
Herman Cain Flubs His Denial Speeches
LYING ABOUT HIS previous sin. I say this because in Herman Cain's case, he lied regardless of whether the allegations against him are true or not. In the first days of the scandal Cain lied at least three times as he tried to minimize his involvement in this affair. First, he said he "wasn't aware of a settlement", then he said something like "yes, he knew there was a settlement of some sort but didn't know the particulars because he wasn't involved in it", then he said, to paraphrase, " I think maybe she got some sort of wage settlement, maybe a half-year's or year's salary, and finally he admitted to signing an agreement with the Restaurant Association.
Brings back memories of Clinton all over again and is absolutely characteristic of those caught in these philandrist situations, think, most recently, Congressman Wiener. I cannot think of anyone in the news in recent times who has not acted in the same manner as our Herman Cain when faced with the same allegations; maybe not with the same flamboyance, but certainly with same certainty of denial. If I am not mistaken, all but one, the WBO President, later confessed and resigned.
Survial
CAN HERMAN CAIN survive? Doubtful. Up to the time that victim number four hit the airways putting the first name and face to the scandal, Conservatives seemed to be in a forgiving mood and were either believing Herman or forgiving him the indiscretions of a younger man. Much talk among the Conservative ranks centered around blaming the victims.
Cains numbers remained steady, more or less. if it had ended there, he might have survived. But with the appearance of a very articulate, Conservative woman who is taking no money for her story and is represented by an attorney pro bono who alleges a specific act that borders on sexual assault and gives her name and face to the story, all bets are off.
No polls have been taken yet, bet if Conservatives forgive Herman Cain this transgression, then I think the credibility of Conservative values come into question and will be looked at by Independents very negatively.
UPDATE - DECEMBER 3, 2011
AFTER A FIFTH WOMAN STEPPED forward to announce a 13-year extra-marital affair; Herman Cain announced today that he is suspending his bid for the 2012 Republican nomination for the President of the United States.
Share Your Opinion
Given what you know, should Herman Cain step out of the race for President?
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ME, It is often true that for the rich man, the entire world is a brothel. What I dislike about Thurston Howell generally is his arrogance in thinking that his money allows him never to have to say that he is sorry.
While I am no friend of Herman Cain, nor his political philosophy,I still believe that he is entitled to a fair hearing. Women coming out of the woodwork over so many years is suspicious to me. But his sabateurs are not democrats or the press but his fellow GOP, you might check out the Koch brothers who could very well be manipulating this man's fall from grace to position another candidate into play like pieces on a chess board. They would do it just for fun and because they can! Great article, thanks Cred2
Actually no, I meant exactly what I said. Perhaps you are not up with the times. I meant b*tch.
Thanks for the comment, CMerrit. I was composing my answer to @Dave and the other guy who has problems identifying gender when your comment popped up, so come back and read that if you see this as it addresses some of what you said. As to stepping-down. There is, of course, no requirement that he do so, I just think it might be a good idea for the rest of the candidates because this scandal is sucking the air out of their efforts. Also, keep in mind, there was an order of magnititude less substantiation supporting Linda Tripps alegations, which were heresay, since Monica was not complaining, but that didn't stop Conservatives from trying, finding Clinton guilty, and hanging him in the court of public opnion.
With Cain, we have four women alledgen they were either harassed or possibly assaulted by Cain and have at least three people to corroborate some of their stories. Plus, you have Cain caught lying right out of the starting gate. You sure you want to stick with him?
Thank you both for commenting and understand your positions. No, I think I will stick by my usage of "victim" rather than "alleged" victims, although I will grant you that I should have used that term for alleged victim number four and say I don't hold alleged victim's number three's testimony in as high regard has 1, 2, and 4.
I need to say, however, that if woman number 3 or 4 had come out singly and without corroborating support, and that had been it, I wouldn't have written this piece the way I did and "alleged" would have been promonent. Even if women numbers 3 and 4 had come out the way they did but with out contemporary corroboration, I still wouldn't have written the piece at all, probably. However, that isn't what happened.
First, NONE of these women BROKE the story, they DIDN'T want the story out there at all, so DON'T BLAME THE WOMEN. It was an investigative news reporter who reported on a piece of news that was in the public record that Cain had brought up before.
Second, Cain DENIED it and called the women 1 and 2 liars; the war was on; he BROUGHT IT ON HIMSELF by lying from the outset; "didn't know there was a settlement"! bull-pucky - THAT is why I wrote the piece.
Third, there is corroboration! 1) you have the settlements themselves that testify to the truth the complaints were made by two different women and were serious enough for the resturant association to pay some Serious bucks to settle, WELL over the deductable of their EPLI insurance coverage, 2) you have Cain finally admitting he was party to the settlement which he lied about for the three days preceeding his admitting the truth; his creditibility about any other truth is shot in my opintion, 3) you have woman number 5 coming out with testimony backing up one of the two original women's complaints, 4) you have woman number 3 coming forward anonymously telling basically the same story, 5) you have woman number 4 coming forward publically knowingly putting herself up for ridicule by people like you who is a Conservative and not for money and is represented by a lawyer pro bono to take away all vestige of monotary gain telling basically the same story as the other three, this time with details, and 6) she has sworn testimony from two other people she told this to contemporaneously with the time it happened.
So, with all due respect, with the caveat I started this reply with, I pretty much stand by what I wrote.
BTW, pcaoch, I think your last invective should have been ba@!#rd, rather than bi**h, given I am male, rather than female. Go back and study your dictionary.
Did Bill Clinton step down AFTER FACTS of his wrongdoings with a 20 year old intern?
First of all, I have zero respect for Gloria Allred, who has now surfaced. There has been zero evidence other than accusations. This attack so far has been proved to be baseless other than an allegation.
Why should he step down, if he believes he is innocent?
He had never given anyone a reason NOT to believe him. It is not like he has been a politician and has been caught with some lies in the past.
Innocent until proven guilty. I think he is handling this just the way he should. Unless there is some hard core evidence of ANY wrongdoings, then it is time to move on.
Btw, sexual harrassment can be something extremely trivial, but yet in this day and time a person can make a lot of money off of a baseless claim, because of the cost of trials.......so it is easy money for so many creeps today.
For now, I stand 100% behind Cain...heck, I am ready to go 110% just because of this "politico-generated-fiasco"
That is my nickels worth anyway...lol.
Chris
I respect your right to write whatever you please but...
You mentioned "victims" shouldn't that have been "alleged victims"?
You jumped on a pretty crowded bandwagon to convict Herman Cain with no substantiated evidence. At some point I hope that bandwagon collapses. Even if and I emphasis if Herman Cain did the alleged claims. I have no respect for people who wait up to 15 years to take advantage of their "misfortunes." The whole circus stinks worse than any skunk taking a direct hit.
Can Herman Cain survive? I certainly hope so. In fact I hope he wins the whole prize.
At least he didn't sit under the barrage of American hating rhetoric for 20 years and launch his political career from the home of a terrorist. Oh and what about the murders of 3 men from his church with links to a possible sex scandal for him.
But I am glad we live in a country that allows you to express your views even if they are twisted.
With all due respect and I reserve the right to take that back at any moment, you seem to fall into the "Mandingo complex" crowd which is not very unique so if you thought you were being thoughtful, well, oops on you.
To put it in a different way, if your little woman were to tell us all that you like little boys, we should all believe her because...why? The broad presented no truths, much like yourself, no truths, just the crap you read on your liberal websites, or perhaps ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CBS...shall I go on? And do you like little boys?
Pretty simple to make people believe what you want them to believe. All you have to do is give voice to it. That is what progressives are teaching us through Saul Alinsky. Aw come on, don't tell me you don't know who Saul Alinsky is, you pervert.
This is a sorry commentary on yourself. Perhaps my wife knows you, ya know, from some "other time" and "some 15 years ago" and weren't you at the Hilton in 1997 in
Washington DC because, hey, guess what, without any evidence, she says she had dinner with you there and brotha, I am lookin' for your a$$.
Having an opinion is one thing. Concocting is purely another and the twain don't meet. You are the worst writer possible. Hubris? Really? Herman Cain? Go bite something, old man. I might very well be older than you by the picture you present for your icon but let me tell you this, you moron, Herman Cain has more class and integrity than you have in your lousiest toe nail. You are exactly the people I will spend the next year of my extra time making you realize that your venom spewing crap just won't work anymore. Take a hike, you bi**h.
My Esoteric Hub Author 6 months ago
Thanks for your thoughts, Credance. As I had said, the arrogance comes with the territory. Often, the more successful you are, the more arrogant you are and the more susceptable to the sin of Hubris. Suprisingly you have this effect as well. If you measure the effectiveness of CEO's on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the absolute best with the attribute of having taking a failing or just so-so company and making them wildly successful in a relatively short period of time, 4 = 8 years, such that they remained so even after they left, you will find that person having almost opposite personal characteristics than the CEO rated 9. The CE0 rated 9 would have the same accomplishments except that his company flames out after he leaves.
As you go up the scale toward 9 (Cain might rate an 8, he did a wonderful job of turning around Godfather Pizza, stablizing it, growing it some, and not flaming out after he left), you have this sort of exponential growth toward hubristic behavior. Then, for some reason, those few CEOs who attain 10 status show almost the opposite personal characteristics, they are almost humble, not necessarily in appearance, but in action.