Those Britches Don't Fit

Winston Churchill reportedly said something very close to, "It is true. We are all worms. But, I prefer to think of myself as a glow worm."
It's easy to laugh and agree that, yes, he certainly did hold a high view of himself. Ha ha... But the malady of self-aggrandizement is too familiar. It runs deep in the race. We can learn much from those who've gone before us that pride does indeed go before a fall. Consider these comments about Civil War Union general George McClellan, who never seemed to quite be ready to do what generals are supposed to do - fight.

"McClellan's ego was enormous, greatly exceeding his talents. He had seen himself as nothing less than the savior of the country, If, he said, "the people call upon me to save the country - I must save it & cannot respect anything that is in the way." There were countless letters to him from ordinary citizens, he liked to claim, urging him to run for the presidency or to become the dictator of America. He greatly preferred the idea of dictator, and he was willing, he sometimes added, to make that sacrifice. He hungered to run against Lincoln, which he finally did, unsuccessfully, in 1864, gaining 21 electoral votes to Lincoln's 212. "A great egoist," Truman later said of McClellan. "A glorified Napoleon. He even had his picture taken with his hand in his overcoat, like Napoleon." (David Halberstam; The Coldest Winter, Hyperion, 2007; p. 603)
One wonders why McClellan, a general, would want to be like Napoleon who is best known for Waterloo. There are many Napoleons and McClellans. Many examples of pride preceding a fall. Yet, books continue to be written because the lessons remain to be learned, the malady is epidemic.