{"id":42062,"date":"2025-01-17T21:29:44","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T17:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=42062"},"modified":"2025-01-17T21:29:44","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T17:29:44","slug":"trump-truss-and-the-age-of-vaulting-ambition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/trump-truss-and-the-age-of-vaulting-ambition\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump, Truss and the Age of Vaulting Ambition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Politics & Society<\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

T<\/em>he best sort of ambition seems to involve working for the common good, and is not about the selfish pursuit of individual glory<\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration as the 47th president of the United States of America (on Monday, January 20, 2025) will be a moment of supreme vindication for him. After being convicted in the New York courts and fighting a ferocious election campaign, during which his opponent declared that \u201cwe\u2019re not going back\u201d, well, here we are.<\/p>\n

January 20 will also represent a triumph of ambition. Whether Trump\u2019s deepest ambition is to lead his nation or simply to stay out of jail is not necessarily clear, but he has made his quest to return to power everyone\u2019s business, essentially since he left the White House in 2021.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s electoral success \u2013 troubling for some, thrilling for others \u2013 forces us to consider the question of ambition anew. What explains this unrelenting drive, this ruthless determination to attack and pulverise his opponents? How does a 78-year-old man maintain this level of commitment to a political struggle when he\u2019d obviously really rather be doing financial deals or playing golf?<\/p>\n

Shakespeare can, as so often, offer us a possible explanation. Few have understood or portrayed ambition as powerfully as the great dramatist did. He knew that, in the worst cases, immoral ambition can prove fatal.<\/p>\n

This, of course, is the central theme of his play ‘Macbeth’, which inspired my latest book. In it I consider different aspects of ambition, both good and bad, each introduced by selected lines from the play which touch upon them.<\/p>\n

As early as act one, Lady Macbeth wonders whether her husband has got \u201cthe right stuff\u201d to get to the very top:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Thou woulds\u2019t be great;
\nArt not without ambition, but without
\nThe illness should attend it.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

She fears that Macbeth lacks a certain killer instinct. He eventually proves her wrong, but (spoiler alert) with deadly consequences for them both. The troubling thought is that Lady Macbeth probably has half a point when she describes intense, obsessive commitment \u2013 \u201cillness\u201d, in her terms \u2013 as a vital ingredient for success. We all know of powerful figures whose \u201cinsane\u201d drive, as with Trump, has taken them far.<\/p>\n

Many people \u2013 especially, perhaps, British people \u2013 struggle with ambition, not being sure what the correct level or intensity of ambition is right for them. The judgment call we need to be able to make in our own lives is recognising what is really important to us, and knowing when we have achieved enough. It is not so much a case of being \u201ccareful what you wish for\u201d. Rather, we need to be thoughtful about what we wish for.<\/p>\n

The case of Liz Truss<\/strong><\/p>\n

A British political figure who would have benefited from brushing up her Shakespeare is Liz Truss. The former Conservative cabinet minister and (very briefly) prime minister might have recognised that reckless ambition for the top job could lead to disaster. In her case it seems that sheer force of will and ambition were not matched by ability and judgment. This was a dangerous imbalance.<\/p>\n

Such is her (continuing) belief that she has been badly wronged by critics and opponents that she has instructed lawyers to send the prime minister, Keir Starmer, a cease and desist letter, requiring him to stop accusing Truss of crashing the economy. The letter says that these statements from Starmer are \u201cfalse and defamatory\u201d.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, given that she sacked the top civil servant at the Treasury and did not (in a departure from usual convention) seek an assessment of her budget plans from the Office for Budget Responsibility, any claim of innocence regarding the economic turmoil of October 2022 and the subsequent market reaction would not be terribly convincing.<\/p>\n

It is hard to be certain what Truss\u2019s motives are. Does she genuinely believe she has been wronged, and is the innocent victim of the mysterious \u201cdeep state\u201d? Or is she merely trying to curry favour with the online Trumpian world, using one of the president-elect\u2019s favourite tactics (ridiculous but distracting legal action) to keep her name in the news? Either way, her ambition still burns brightly and without any apparent sense of shame.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Truss is a (very) extreme example of what my colleague, Professor Laura Empson, calls \u201cinsecure overachievers\u201d \u2013 professionals who strive to achieve more but sometimes at considerable cost to themselves and others. Leaders need to be alert to this phenomenon (although some bosses will be insecure overachievers themselves). Good leaders avoid creating a culture where \u201cinsecure overachievement\u201d is demanded as a universal behavioural norm.<\/p>\n

Ambitious for the right sort of ambition<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen ambition ends, happiness begins,\u201d said Thomas Merton, a 20th century Catholic monk. That may seem like an extreme view. Without healthy ambition nothing good can happen. Businesses cannot improve, and society will not function better. It is the harmful excesses of behaviour which we need to avoid.<\/p>\n

We can and we should aim to achieve more. Our natural gifts and hard-won abilities should be displayed. As Michelangelo is supposed to have said: \u201cThe greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark.\u201d<\/p>\n

We look at the extremely ambitious, sometimes with admiration, and sometimes with horror. But the best sort of ambition seems to involve working for the common good, and is not about the selfish pursuit of individual glory. As far as Trump is concerned, well, we have seen this movie before. He divides audiences, to put it mildly. Forgive me if I don\u2019t see him as a positive role model.<\/p>\n

Stefan Stern<\/span>
\n<\/strong>Visiting Professor of Management Practice,
\nBayes Business School, City St George’s,
\nUniversity of London<\/p>\n

\n

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 17 January 2025<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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