Hubris, moi?

Allan Hubbard

Many moons ago, Adam posted on Hubris Syndrome, a condition which Lord David Owen former British politician, and a medical doctor, detects as existing in politicians. Adam followed his initial post with others including this one.

Symptoms include:-

You look upon the world as an arena in which to exercise power and find glory. Your confidence in yourself is unshakeable. You are restless, impulsive – reckless even. Detail bores you. Oh yes, and God, or history, or both is firmly on your side. No need then to listen to the little people. You are suffering from Hubris Syndrome.

Does this begin to remind you of anybody?

Then

Most syndromes of personality tend to manifest themselves by the age of 18, remaining with sufferers for the rest of their lives. Lord Owen contends that HS is different, in that it appears in leaders only when in power, and usually only after they have been wielding it for some time. It is an illness of position as much as of the person.

The longer you stay in office, the longer you are cocooned by deference, the more your sense of omnipotence grows, the greater the chance you will contract HS. That’s bad because HS leads almost inevitably to flawed reasoning and a blindness to alternatives – or ”hubristic incompetence” as Lord Owen describes it. But it isn’t just about position; there must be some kind of predisposition in sufferers.

So a pattern emerges. Adam now begins to suspect that this syndrome is spreading. He sees some remarkable similarities to what Lord Owen described in the situation we see with Allan Hubbard, Hubbard had spent many years running his fiefdom at SCF, opening the mail and controlling the decisions made so for example:-

Allan Hubbard went on to say that when they were personally placed in statutory management on June 20 this year, that was a serious blow to them, South Canterbury Finance and “unbelievably short sighted” on the part of the Government which acted on the advice of the Registrar of Companies.

“I have spent my life supporting businesses, investors and charities and my track record speaks for itself,” he said. “I have been prudent and diligent, to the very best of my ability, and have always been deeply respectful of the trust placed in me.”

An illustrative remark, one of several which can be found here

Then we could take account of this statement as well:-

“I don’t believe in the history of New Zealand that any person has acted more honourably than myself.”

This has to be one of the most arrogant and self-serving remarks that Adam has ever read.

Adam cannot recall anyone in the media, or indeed in the blogosphere, picking up on this until Bernard Hickey noted it.  Adam apologises if he is in error re the tenor of his remarks regarding Hubbard’s remark.

Whilst Adam noted the comment at the time, it was over the weekend when reviewing much of the press comment on Hubbard that a vague recollection of this comment surfaced. Then when Adam started to write this post the recollection returned. Hubris definitely, arrogance as well and a clear statement of infallibility.What a crock!

Hubris, moi?

Yes, indubitably. Sadly, it seems to Adam that Lord Owen’s thesis may well account for much of what we hear from Mr Hubbard, who it appears is a good man according to the many who claim they benefited from his largesse, but to Adam’s mind, events have overtaken Mr Hubbard and his way of doing ‘business’.

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