Arrogance and Downfall: Berlin gets a richly deserved drubbing at the UN

“Hochmut kommt vor dem Fall” (arrogance precedes downfall) says a proverb every German knows. That, you may say, is little wonder, considering the last two world wars, how they started and how they ended.

But the saying is much older. It is rooted in Martin Luther’s punchy translation of the Old Testament (in the English King James Bible, the relevant passage reads “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall”). Clearly, the admonition not to preen and strut lest you stumble and fall flat on your silly, overbearing face is addressed to all of us, including, for instance, Americans or Israelis.