Votes and Unity

The other day I posted this on another social media platform:

"He falls, and does not know in the daze of his folly. Such in the dark of man is the mist of infection that hovers, and the moaning rumor tells how his house lies under fog that glooms above." (Aeschylus, The Eumenides, 379-380)

I didn't post it here on LinkedIn because I don't like to post or even read anything remotely like partisan political commentary here. And yet, Aristotle thought of politics as being about how best to live well together, and, at its core, the wisdom of good politics applies to all our businesses and communities. So I want to share a story about a hard fought close election in the mythology of ancient Greece that may provide insight for our time, on a national scale, or within a hard fought corporate governance battle.

The quote above comes from the third of a three play series: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides. In the latter play there is language amazingly applicable to what has been happening in America since Election Day. There is no close parallel in the overall story, or tight analogy throughout, but bits of the situation in the third play are eerily apt for our time.

An important issue is going to be decided by the casting of ballots. It's going to involve a law court. The Chorus is on the wrong side. Athene is on the other. She remarks to them at some point, "I say, wrong must not win by technicalities." (432 - I'm eyeballing line numbers so they're at least close if not exact.) She then comments about the other side:

"And if this action so runs that they fail to win, the venom of their resolution will return to infect the soil, and sicken my land to death." (476)

The side destined to lose says that in case they do: "Vengeance will be upon you." ((542)

We read of the man at the center of it all: "He had good luck in his life. Now he smashes it on the reef of Right and drowns, unwept and forgotten." ((563)

Apollo oversees the election and says, "Shake out the votes, Athenian friends. Be careful as you pick them up. Make no mistake. In the lapse of judgment great disaster comes. The cast of a single ballot has restored a house entire." (752)

Those who realize they're on the losing side chant together:

"I, disinherited, suffering with anger shall let loose on the land the vindictive poison dripping deadly out of my heart upon the ground; this from itself shall breed cancer, the leafless, the barren, to strike, for the right, their low lands and drag its smear of mortal infection on the ground. What shall I do? Afflicted, I am mocked by these people. I have borne what cannot be borne. Great the sorrows and the dishonor upon the sad daughters of night." (780-791)

Athene, who cast the tie breaking vote on the winning side, says: "Listen to me. I would not have you be so grieved. For you have not been beaten. This was the result of a fair ballot which was even. You were not dishonored, but the luminous evidence of Zeus was there ..." (794) She goes on, "Do not be angry any longer with this land nor bring the bulk of your hatred down on it, do not render it barren of fruit, nor spill the dripping rain of death in fierce and jagged lines to eat the seeds. In complete honesty, I promise you a place of your own ..." (794-796).

Those on the losing side still complain they have been dishonored. Athene says, "No, not dishonored." (824) They're not convinced and say, "The wind I breathe is fury and utter hate." (840)

Then Athene has a great idea. She proposes how she will give the losers special powers to do good and not harm. They will be powerful, but only in a positive way. She explains her plan and at one point says, "No household shall be prosperous without your will." (895). The losers say together as one, "You will do this? You will really let me be so strong?" (896) She reaffirms her plan and then wins them over.

The winning side of the case, in a tighter than expected election, decides not to gloat or mock the losers, but to redirect their energy which is at first all hate and ire, into something more positive. They're acknowledged not as being pure evil at all but as potentially powerful for good. They're given hope and a task, and they're won over. Let us hope for something like this in our time.