The haughty and the toady

‘The Tragedy of Troilus and Cressida’ is among the less talked of plays by William Shakespeare. Set at Troy during the Trojan War, the play foregrounds the ill-fated love affair between Troilus, the youngest of King Priam’s sons and Cressida, sent to the Greeks as part of a hostage exchange, against efforts to cure the pride of the estranged Greek hero Achilles, the central character of Homer’s ‘Illiad,’ and thereby join the battle against the Trojans. Indeed, the love story is almost incidental, although the lovers lend the play its title.

This, however, is not a discussion on Shakespeare or the trials and tribulations of lovers. It is about pride. Consider the following extract from a lengthy exchange between Agamemnon, who according to legend was the brother of the ‘wronged’ Menelaus and commander of the Greek forces, and Ajax, another celebrated Greek warrior:

Ajax: Why should a man be proud? How doth pride grow? I know not what pride is.

Agamemnon: Your mind is clearer, Ajax, and your virtues the fairer. He that is proud eats up himself: pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle; and whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the deed in the praise.

Ajax: I do hate a proud man, as I hate the engendering of toads.

Agamemnon doesn’t really answer the first two questions and I won’t attempt it either; he simply describes the notion and dwells on its consequences. He skims the surface as appropriate for a casual conversation, but the observations are certainly interesting.

The world in the year 2025 is about trumpets and chronicles. Self-enhancement. We don’t really get to see the ‘deeds’ because they are frilled with many layers of self-congratulatory narratives. Trumpets and chronicles. Advertising. The product’s true attributes are left to be ascertained by those who are swayed by the story.

Indeed, it may be argued that if the narrative is compelling enough the consumer would actually dismiss any misgivings following purchase. We tell ourselves, ‘hmm…but it’s probably healthy,’ even if it isn’t as delicious as claimed or expected, in the case of some food or beverage product. It’s actually easier if health-related attributes are marketed for then the taste factor diminishes.

It’s not only about food and beverages. Deeds, after all, speak to ‘work.’ It could be a simple matter such as street lighting, garbage disposal, road repair, water supply and sanitation. It could be grand too: constitutional amendment, correcting defects in the justice system and law enforcement, enhancing diplomatic relations, comprehensive development plans, securing food and energy sovereignty and obtaining inter-ethnic and inter-religious harmony.

In all these there can be talk. Trumpets can be blown. Chronicles can be written. Even when nothing has been done or what’s done is hardly worth talking about. According to Agamemnon, the deed, whether paltry or grand, diminishes as a consequence.

It’s a bubble. And bubbles are fragile and tend to burst.  

The fixation on trumpets and chronicles has its own dangers that have nothing to do with deeds. When there’s a lot of trumpeting, musicality suffers. Too many words and they get jumbled. The one creates discord and is hard on the ears; the other scrambles the intended message. Both, separately or together, give headaches. After a while those upon whom trumpeting and chronicling are thrust upon, stop listening and reading. Deeds are forgotten, noise is abhorred and the relevance of noise-makers decline.

In short, it is better to let beneficiaries read the deeds as they will.  Now the argument can be made that those at odds with the doers might produce some ‘music’ of their own, that they will offer critical narratives. Such moves can also render deeds invisible. This can do harm to the profiles of the doers. After all, the good and well-intentioned have often enough been vilified to oblivion throughout history.
On the other hand, if they are humble enough to acknowledge that there are no superhuman beings on this planet and that eventually all things must perish including deeds, accounts of deeds and memory of deeds, then they can take solace in the following wise words of the German polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, ‘The act is all, reputation nothing.’  

Now to Ajax’s confession, that of hating those who are proud and hating equally the engendering of toads

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Ajax implies that he can suffer the toady, but not any move or process that produces toads.  Toady, by the way, refers to someone who behaves obsequiously to someone important. Sycophants, creeps, crawlers, fawners, flatterers, lackeys, grovellers, stooges, puppets, doormats, minions, hangers-on. What Ajax objects to is someone or some process which creates such creatures.

In a way, proud people tend to love flattery and therefore they need and cultivate flatterers. Both types make bubbles. Both engage in activity that subvert deeds or make them invisible. Both get deflated when bubbles inevitably burst. 

It makes sense, therefore, to be wary of trumpets, trumpet blowing, trumpeters and champions of trumpeters.  The world is full of them. Perhaps this is why we don’t see deeds or, worse, we disregard deeds altogether.

It cannot last. History is full of examples and we don’t have to read Shakespeare or Homer to understand this. 

 

[This article was published in the Daily News under the weekly column title 'The Recurrent Thursday']