Oppenheimer & the Art of Leadership
Prometheus again takes center stage
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer is a fascinating tale of a genius grappling with existential issues at an epochal moment in world history. Its Pulitzer Prize is well-deserved, and the movie adaptation is a big hit. However, Oppenheimer’s genius was in certain respects not singular. He was but one of the Nuclear Age’s many radically innovative impressionists. It’s a matter of opinion as to how successful he’d have been absent the work of many other geniuses, such as Enrico Fermi, whose sustained nuclear reaction beneath my alma mater’s football field in 1942 was the first real proof of the theories many great theoretical physicists were bandying about at the time.
If you only have the time to read one book that invokes the lessons of Prometheus (one of the Titans, he was essentially the Joker in the Greek worldview, as well as the creator of fire, for good and bad), I recommend The Theater of War: What Ancient Greek Tragedies Can Teach Us Today, by Bryan Doerries. It’s filled with universally relatable pathos and practical advice. Greek has two main words for “time”: chronos, and kairos; the former the origin of chronological time, the sort that’s on your iPhone, the latter roughly translating into “transcending time,” or “timeless.” And given the fact that Prometheus first appeared on stage 2,800 years ago, and is arguably even more relevant today, the mythological god certainly embodies kairos.
Yet Prometheus is just one of the stars in Doerries’ ensemble cast, a dream team that also includes the likes of Ajax, Zeus, Helen of Troy, Persephone, and Athena.
Why are the ancients Doerries writes about so relevant today? Because they are leaders who illustrate tried-and-true ways to cope with great tragedy…and remind us how, as surely as night gives rise to day, and the moon yields to the sun, no matter how dark it is or how deep our despair—seedlings of rebirth are almost always buried in the ashes of tragedy. We just need to know how to find them, cultivate them with a can-do attitude, and embrace hope. That takes authentic leadership.
Greek philosophers and playwrights have much to teach about how to lead in our own time of toxic civil discourse, multi-front wars, and mysterious pandemics. Covid has claimed three-tenths of one percent (0.3%) of the U.S. population. Athens lost one out of every three of its citizens (33%) during just one of its periodic—and terrifying—plagues. Yet still the Athenians attended the theater!
And as for war… Athens and Sparta make the Red and Blue states seem like cooing lovebirds. Let alone all the fratricidal bloodletting amongst and between Thebes, Macedon (Alexander the Great’s first stomping ground), plus the Greeks’ powerful rival, Persia. Arguably the greatest plays ever were performed not in London’s storied Globe Theatre (Shakespeare borrowed heavily from both Euripides and Sophocles) but 1,000 years earlier in Athenian amphitheaters, during times of near-constant war.
Between the black death and the battlefield, many Greek city-states lost 80% of their population; every decade or so, with no end in sight. Is it any wonder they invented tragedy?
Doerries can relate. He weaves in his own despair—establishing credibility, tugging us to listen, empathize, and commiserate. The story of his father's slow descent into madness and death is heart-wrenching, as is that of his fiancee’s death from a combination of cystic fibrosis, organ transplant-rejections, and other tragedies.
What has Doerries done with all this tragedy? A tremendous public service, that’s what. In 2009, he co-founded Theater of War Productions. He calls it a “public health project,” and indeed it is. His breathtakingly inventive—and free—participatory performances have helped 500,000+ people in 100+ countries. By providing a safe space to listen, and share vulnerably, they’ve healed grievous psychological wounds and forged profound friendships between ex-combatants. So many people have shown up thinking their situations were hopeless, only to connect at a very deep emotional level with the suffering of a reimagined Oedipus or some other ancient—and leave buoyed by a gritty optimism, equipped with a toolkit of practical solutions applicable to almost every theater of their lives. His terrific book (published in 2015) captures the essence of the productions (which are by design only live-streamed, not available on-demand).
So, yes, by all means, read the book about Oppenheimer, and see the movie. But if you really want to be entertained and add muscle to your managerial skill set, I urge you also to check out Doerries’ important elucidation of the art of leadership.
Oppenheimer knew that fire kills, but also protects and sustains life. Our Red and Blue leaders would do well to re-read what Homer (not Simpson!) wrote more than 28 centuries ago…as spoken by the mighty Ajax, after his first duel with Hector:
Come, let us give each other gifts, unforgettable gifts, so any man may say, Trojan soldier or Argive, “First they fought with heart-devouring hatred, then they parted, bound by pacts of friendship.”
References and recommendations for further reading and viewing:
The Oedipus Project; YouTube.com
You Are Not Alone Across Time; Onbeing.org
Thank you!
Underneath
Stagg Field by the way
Just after Chicago beat Michigan in football— then quit DI
Explains a lot!
Very interesting, thanks Eric!