Winston Churchill's Hubris

In the depths of every human brain, there lies the simple chemicals that basically control everything every person does. Sometimes, a person’s chemicals are changed in infinitesimal, but cataclysmic ways. Sometimes that same person controls the fates of millions of their fellow people. Mental illness in major figures of our society has definitively altered the course of human history, causing both avoidable death and changing the outcome of entire wars and social movements.

Those changes are sometimes for the better. Winston Churchill, famed English wartime leader, most likely had clinical depression (Famous People with Mental Illness 1). This depression might have made him a better leader; it caused Churchill to be more cynical in all aspects

Different chemicals in the brain can cause some humans to do despicable things to their fellow inhabitants of Earth. Hubris syndrome is defined as believing you have supreme power and do not have the need to answer to any mortal court (Owen and Davidson 1-3). In broad terms, Hubris syndrome is similar to Narcissistic Personality disorder, but instead is triggered when in a high position of power. The Roman emperor Caligula most likely had Hubris Syndrome. Described by the Roman Suetonius as a complete monster, the despot did things such as wantonly have people killed and made people treat him as if he were on the level of power of the gods (437-439). Caligula was made a ruler fairly young, and ended up being completely unable to handle such power. His story is repeated in many historical examples of small minded men gaining access to ultimate military might and wreaking havoc. Many mentally ill but charismatic and seemingly good-willed men have affected society negatively by gaining power and using it for their own ends, with their sickness causing them to be unable to see the significance of the human cost. The individuals that have Hubris Syndrome can ultimately exhibit “ disastrous leadership and cause damage on a large scale,” (Owen and Davidson 1) and be eternally vilified, all because of a mental

Every individual’s entire impression that they leave on the earth affects all other individual’s legacies, creating a ripple effect across every continent. Despite and because of mental illness, successful men have done positive and negative things, and have led themselves forward indomitably, sometimes to their own destruction. The chemicals in anyone’s brain can, and do, save the world, and this shows us that our society is not a collection of principles and rules held together by a few individuals, but a collection of individuals bound loosely together by a few unfeeling principles and rules. The person behind each rule, work of art, or discovery of knowledge is a flawed mind, and is above all doing what they think they should be doing based on mere electric impulses in the mass of tissue inside their head, and what they conceive with that strange apparatus has the potential to cause an explosion of good deeds or evil deeds, human progress or war, or even a confluence between all humans towards a common purpose. Our lives would not, could not be the same if our leaders had been completely sane, optimistic people, and that is the nature of the wildness of humans and our