{"id":2286,"date":"2019-12-15T10:49:28","date_gmt":"2019-12-15T10:49:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/honour-in-greece\/?p=2286"},"modified":"2020-01-17T17:05:38","modified_gmt":"2020-01-17T17:05:38","slug":"hybris-and-the-oxford-bullingdon-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/research.shca.ed.ac.uk\/honour-in-greece\/2019\/12\/15\/hybris-and-the-oxford-bullingdon-club\/","title":{"rendered":"Hybris and the Oxford Bullingdon Club"},"content":{"rendered":"
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by <\/span>Linda Rocchi<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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They are usually roaming the streets at night. Had you been able to see them in the darkened alleys, you would have recognised them from their dress \u2013 almost a uniform. But, even without seeing, you can tell that it\u2019s them as you hear them passing by, staggering about, excessively drunk \u2013 and aggressively so. You just know they are about to do something nasty: break something, or beat someone up, or both. And why wouldn\u2019t they? Normal rules, they tell each other, do not apply to them. Their exclusive club has its own rules.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Drunken brawls and elite clubs \u2013 the Oxford Bullingdon Club<\/span> through and through. And yet, this description does not come from a newspaper column devoted to the deeds of the infamous Oxonian dining club, which has been consistently making the headlines<\/a>, in recent years, primarily because of its connections with prominent members of the Conservative Party<\/span>, including current Prime Minister Boris Johnson<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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This familiar picture is in fact more distant from us, both in time and space: these same ideas of exclusiveness, of extreme licentiousness, of being above the laws are all to be found in the description of aristocratic youth associations outlined by Demosthenes<\/span>, the fourth-century Athenian politician and orator, in his speech Against Conon<\/em><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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As painted by Demosthenes, Conon, the defendant, is an interesting figure. Though grown up (\u201ca man over fifty\u201d<\/span>, according to the speechwriter), he still hasn\u2019t lost his edge: according to Ariston, Demosthenes\u2019 client, who had been beaten up in the Athenian agora<\/em> by Conon\u2019s son Ctesias, a bunch of Conon\u2019s cronies, and Conon himself on their way back from a drinking party, \u201cthe whole business came about at [Conon\u2019s] instigation\u201d<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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The judges \u2013 Ariston argues \u2013 should not listen to Conon\u2019s assertion that it had been a scuffle between youths, a petty quarrel between rival gangs that Conon is trying to dismiss with the usual \u2018boys will be boys\u2019. The incident<\/span>, in Demosthenes\u2019 stringent argumentation, is part of a much larger pattern<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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While Ariston distances himself from this kind of elite club for rich youths, he goes to great pains to show how Ctesias, and \u2013 more significantly \u2013 Conon before him, were both knee-deep in this kind of association: clubs with names such as ithyphalloi<\/em> \u2013 \u2018the satyrs\u2019<\/span> \u2013 or autol\u0113kythoi<\/em> \u2013 \u2018the wankers\u2019<\/span> \u2013 or Triballoi<\/em> \u2013 \u2018the barbarians\u2019<\/span>; clubs constantly engaging in all sorts of outrageous and antisocial behaviour<\/span>, from drinking excessively and causing havoc to profaning all the most sacred rites of the city, from stealing and thrashing to perjuring themselves in court.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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But this is not just about the consequences \u2013 unpleasant as they might be \u2013 that this behaviour might have on individual \u2018regular\u2019 citizens. These associations do not simply allow young aristocrats to let off steam \u2013 they instil and enforce in these youths a set of norms which is antithetical to that of the city, and actively teach them to value these norms above all others. Socialised in this way, young aristocrats learn to behave according to their peers\u2019 expectations<\/span> and to despise all those who do not meet their standards, who fall short of their idea of what \u2018honourable behaviour\u2019 is. In other words, they think they are better than others<\/span>, and that there\u2019s no need to abide by the rules that others abide by: they measure the world according to the parameters of their in-group and treat with contempt those who do not. <\/span><\/p>\n

And this is precisely what Ariston has in mind when repeatedly accusing Conon of hybris<\/span> <\/em>[see here<\/a> and here<\/a>]: it is not so much the blow that is worrying \u2013 even though it is, and having been beaten up is enough in itself to seek and obtain justice \u2013 but rather the reason why the blow was struck.<\/span><\/p>\n

Conon beat Ariston and stole his cloak because of his aggrandised perception of his own worth as opposed to that of others: he did it just because he thought he could, and he thought he could because those who do not belong to his group, to him, are not entitled to any kind of respect. This cocksure attitude had been performed by Conon and reinforced by his peers since their very youth \u2013 and was there to stay. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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These \u2013 Ariston seems to be saying \u2013 are not youthful bravados, something which, later in life, can be dismissed, in the words of our Prime Minister<\/a>, as \u201ca truly shameful vignette of almost superhuman undergraduate arrogance, toffishness and twittishness<\/span>\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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These are permanent dispositions that not only clash with the values of the community \u2013 they will eventually be harmful to the community itself. Exclusive upper-class clubs, antisocial behaviours, a complete disconnection from the life of regular citizens, and a conviction that rules that apply to others do not apply to them<\/span>. When these are the main tenets of the ruling class\u2019 education and socialisation<\/span>, the gulf between \u2018us\u2019 and \u2018them\u2019 could not become greater. And when these tendencies go unchecked, it comes as no surprise that, for instance, a former member of one of these clubs, after having suspended Parliament, had to be reminded by the former Justice Secretary that the rule of law does apply to him, too \u2013 and not just to the \u201cfucking plebs\u201d<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Demosthenes, then, might have had a point when arguing that these associations were potentially dangerous not only for individuals, but for democracy as a whole<\/span>. I fear that, over the next weeks, months, and years, we may have ample opportunity to find this out for ourselves.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Linda Rocchi<\/a><\/p>\n

Featured images (via\u00a0Wikimedia Commons<\/a>):<\/span><\/p>\n