Arrogance of power

Business Recorder

02-07-2025

Dante in 'Inferno' wrote, 'Pride, avarice and envy are the tongues men know and heed, a babel of despair'. Arrogance is a serious disease of the mind.
The onset of arrogance is not sudden or immediate; it like the cancerous cells keeps growing and gnawing slowly but steadily at the divinely blessed innate humane qualities of humility and modesty. The meaning of arrogance is an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions. (Merriam- Webster, dictionary).
The unentitlement of any credit taken for any act or trait is actually arrogance. The absence and general lack of self-awareness leads towards arrogant attitude and behaviour — such dilute in their own eyes, their major weaknesses and exaggerate their wrongfully perceived strengths.
The cause of vain glory arising out of possessing superior knowledge, wealth, physical attractiveness, piety, family lineage, social status, official designation, etc. is embedded within us. This gives us an inflated sense of importance. It is a negative trait by all definitions and standards.
Obsession with self is the first rung on the ladder of arrogance. Once obsessed, modesty departs. The obsession of being good and better is so fulfilling, that such seek no confirmation from others. Self-love is the best inducement for invoking feelings of pride and arrogance.
Arrogance is abhorred. There is no society where arrogant behaviour is appreciated or admired. All religions, sects, holy books and scriptures abominate with rebuke, anger and disdain the presence of arrogant traits.
Humility is a divorced trait of the arrogant, it is a die-hard foe of arrogance, they refuse to coexist within one person or even the whole society. While it is alright to expect that for standing tall, nobody should have to be at the mercy of endorsement by others; but recognition is best achieved by subtlety than a vociferous announcement. In any case, the praise of another hurts the arrogant.
Arrogance is not limited to individuals. In fact, the infectiousness of this ailment is so deep-seated that it envelopes besides individuals entities organisations, societies, nations, cultural values, economic well-being, prosperity, physical appearances, etc.
How many nations, societies and tribes, who were extremely powerful and used to insolently, arrogantly with their necks floating in the air roamed upon planet earth stand obliterated today; the sickle of time has mowed down the best and the worst of the arrogant. The element of arrogance in character lends a false feeling of immortality. We conveniently refuse to accept that all shadows lengthen and fade away. Divine Scriptures and Holy Books mention about the Pharaohs as arrogant; so also is the son of Noah and the wife of Lot, and several others, whose fate and end was pitiful and horrifying.
As an antidote to this detestation, arrogant leaders are also excellent performers. As hard-task masters they make sure that targets are achieved because failure to do invites their wrath of sudden reprisals.
Arrogance of piety is the worst format. The priest, the Mullah from the pulpit in their sermons and the Sadhus in their Bhajans indulge in condemnation of arrogance as a character trait, yet, they are worst examples of pride. They consider themselves holier, hence are disdainful towards others. A superiority complex syndrome attends to their own personalities. This type of arrogance is more harmful to society.
Fear the arrogance of the polite and the modest. Their arrogant ways are far more deadlier than the person who declares himself as an arrogant being. The despising of pride and arrogance is a higher degree of arrogant attitude. The declamation of pride is no sign of humility.
Arrogance is being haughty and proud. A close cousin is being supercilious, where the individual adopts a cool patronising attitude of haughtiness, reflecting that he or she is better than others. Destruction follows the path of pride, arrogance and superciliousness. The bedrock of arrogance is entrenched in delusional thinking that inspires a feeling of superiority over others.
Napoleon Bonaparte (my hero, for many different reasons than arrogance) was so full of himself, his arrogant ways were to the nth level; his ambitious attitude, self-importance, misgivings about being blest by Divinity to rule the world, leading him to Crown himself as the 'Emperor of France'. He ended up, like all arrogant do, dying, a lonely death in the desolate island of St. Helena in the Atlantic. A tragic end of a brilliant man.
The arrogant Raza Shah Pehlavi was humbled by a humble person, who lived several thousand miles away in the suburbs of Paris; Sheikh Mujibur Rehman's remark 'I am the Bangla Bandhu' was worth a single soldier's loaded magazine; the arrogant claim 'Dhaka over my dead body' had a life of less than 48 hours; the insolent pride of thumping the table by Gen. Yahya in response to a group of Japanese journalists, who had dared to use the word 'genocide' was humbled by the surrender, that slapped us all so viciously that it still hurts; Indira Gandhi's atrocious arrogance of storming of the Golden Temple was undone by her personally selected bodyguard, Beant Singh, who mercilessly pumped the entire sulphur of his automatic weapon into her.
Human history is resplendent with the inglorious end of all and any who possessed even a single grain of arrogance in their behaviour and attitude.
Several arrogant leaders in not-too-distant history stood out for their ruthlessness—Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, etc. The common attribute that runs as a thread of continuity is: almost all of them were not only arrogant but ruthless, murderous, unkind, unforgiving, etc. They weren't respected but immensely feared.
Arrogance derives power through either de jure means or by the prevalent importance, as exercised, or on a de facto basis. The power of the barrel/ gun is a stark reality of human history since yester years. Leaders who are hoisted not by popular vote but through diabolical means and strategies (Benjamin Netanyahu is a case in point) lack validation. Such leaders rule by arrogance of power, coercion and fear.
Israel as a nation has always been full of pride of invincibility. They thought it was proper and right to fly wherever they wished to, across seven seas, to go and hit with impunity other countries. Their arrogance laid to shreds all norms of international laws and civility. That myth has recently been broken—no invincibility but only vulnerabilities—by those who have shown the spine to stand up to the bullying of Netanyahu. The myth of Iron Dome has been busted by Iranian-built missiles.
In the current crop of leadership across the globe, Netanyahu and Narendra Modi stand out as the best (worst) examples of arrogant leaders. Both of them are equally guilty of indulging in rampant murder of the innocent. Their political thought and ideology are based on deep-seated hatred against the enemies, real or self-perceived is unimportant. Both have been genocidal in their approaches— massive and insolent indulgence in, rape, loot, murder and plunder of innocent men, women and children.
The manifestations and formats of arrogance are several. Those who are articulate and speak well exhibit in their behaviour pride arising out of this advantage over those who cannot; so anybody who even understands that their uniqueness of possessing a certain quality or skill-set is an act of Divinity still bask in public glory as if it is their self-learnt art. Such become perennially arrogant.
The meed of deeds, good or evil, is settled many times now, then and there, and in few cases the retribution comes on a delayed basis; but it is usually more lethally destructive.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025