Thread by @TomMcTague

In Boris's novel, 72 Virgins, the central character, the bumbling anti-hero Roger Barlow (a bicycling, angst-ridden Tory MP with only a “knuckle of principle") speculates about what motivates him. Does he have a Thanatos urge, he wonders? — A death urge.
theatlantic.com/international/…

This "death urge" is common among PMs, Lucille Iremonger wrote in her seminal book, The Fiery Chariot, exploring the lives of political leaders. Iremonger describes the hunger for power among the insecure as the Phaeton complex, from the Greek myth theatlantic.com/international/…

Phaeton, a child of the sun god, demands his father prove his love by letting him drive the sun chariot. When he does, Phaeton’s “utter inadequacy” becomes obvious. He plunges, scorching the Earth and creating the Sahara desert, before Jupiter intervenes by striking him down. Eek

The moral of the story: Phaeton’s desire to be acknowledged by his father provides him with an "overweening and suicidal determination to display himself to all men carrying out a superhuman task [that] could lead only to disaster for himself, and possibly for others.” 🤔

Does Boris yearn for disaster like his novel's hero, Barlow? Or is he just prepared to risk more? In an epitaph, the Roman poet Ovid writes: “Here Phaeton lies; he who sought to drive the chariot of his father, the sun; if he did not succeed at least he died daring great things.”

Here's my profile which discusses all this and what might really lie behind the man now holding the reins of power in Britain👇 theatlantic.com/international/…