Hubris Schmubris?

"The Argonauts left Heracles behind," noted Aristotle, for the same reason that the Athenians took to ostracizing and sending into exile outstanding citizens, "so the Argos would not have on board one so vastly bigger than the rest of the crew ."

One of the major themes in Greek literature is the destructive power of hubris, yet this is a blatant example of such a force being exhibited by the Greeks. The assumption that times are good therefore we do not need a hero, is one for the hubristic kind. That is equivalent to saying that because we think we are getting by as is, we do not want anything that could improve our current state of affairs. This notion is dangerous one because that means whenever we do fall into a crisis there will be no heroes to lift us out, for they have all been driven away. Even the great Athenians, the arguable ideal western state, drove away people that they knew could help them develop and progress. Heroes help us to see the best in ourselves, not taking the status quo for an answer, and shatter the our accepted view of normal leaving the extraordinary in their wake. Human kind would be foolish to assume that we do not need as many heroes as it can find, at whatever time it can find them, for a true hero is not only a beacon of hope, but a catalyst towards a better society and a better future for humankind.