Think the forces of darkness are unstoppable? On this day in
1812, Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Russia. Hubris destroys. For Napoleon, it caused
disaster and the loss of 400,000 men of his Grande Armee. More importantly, it ended the myth of his invincibility.
For Americans, in a little over a week from now, we’ll note the
154th anniversary of “unbeatable” Robert E. Lee’s ordering three
divisions to assault Cemetery Ridge outside the small town of Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania. The Confederate divisions of Pettigrew, Pickett, and Trimble,
probably “tired of winning” by then, were slaughtered by the Union forces of
General George Gordon Meade, in what some call “the high-water mark of the Confederacy.
Ironically, two days ago in 1941, Adolph Hitler launched
Operation Barbarossa, the Invasion of Russia. Allowing hubris to shield him from the historical example
of France’s invasion of that country, he sent new armies to face the seemingly endless
expanses, murderous winters, and a country determined to survive at any cost. By some estimates, his army suffered nearly a
million casualties. The goal of world domination by the Third Reich ended with
that defeat. Although doomed, Hitler’s hubris would continue to destroy for
four more years, and would end with his country’s near annihilation.
Let’s not forget April 22, 1954. That’s the day that the “unstoppable”
Senator Joseph McCarthy allowed his ego to take on stronger foes in the form of
the United States Army and its legal representative Joseph N. Welch. The televised affair unmasked McCarthy as a liar, an egomaniac, a bully, and a
purveyor of hate and the politics of personal destruction. He never recovered
from the exposure, experiencing censure from the Senate and a lonely death from
alcoholism.
For those who like to connect dots, the hearings involved,
to a large degree, the shenanigans of a
young, ambitious, vicious, and morally
challenged attorney on Senator McCarthy’s team: Roy M. Cohn. If that name
sounds familiar, it should. Before his death of aids in 1988, he was a mentor to the current president of the United States.
Isn’t it interesting how the fabrics of History can be
stitched together by the common threads of concepts like hubris? There is idle
chatter these days of a “New American Civil War.” Of course that is silly. It
is also unnecessary to restore moral balance in our country. We just need the
right person to ask, as Joseph Welch once did, "Have you no sense of decency
sir?"
Plus Tailgunner Joe was trying to root all the Russian spies and sympathizers in government.
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