Mr. Beast a Modern Tragic Hero

Mr. Beast, a tragic hero? Who's the tragic hero? Aristotle defines a tragic hero as somebody who has two sides to their personality. On the one hand, they are very talented and great at conquering something big like Mr. Beast, who was on the time magazine cover for being the most watched person on the planet earth. On the other hand they also have a tragic flaw in them that derails them. Dogpack04 made a video about Mr. Beast and some of his questionable practices. And since then, some of his supporters like Phillip de Franco have said, "Hey, these are important questions that Jimmy needs to answer."

Looking at Mr. Beast from the point of view of tragic hero, I think is very helpful. Because a tragic hero is not somebody who just does bad stuff. A tragic hero is someone who has good intentions, but their good intentions get derailed because of a fatal flaw. There is something in their character that derails them away. For example we see in Homer's Iliad.

In the Iliad Agamemnon is the king of the Greeks. His fatal flaw is that he is excessive ambitious. He wants to go to try and defeat Troy in war. So he brings all of us generals together sets sail on fleets to go to Troy and defeat Troy. But the problem is there is no wind for the fleet to sail. So he asks his priests what he should do. And his priest tell him that Poisideon the God of the seas is upset with him. The only way he can get favorable winds to go to war against Troy is if he would sacrifice his daughter to the gods.

So now Agamemnon has a choice. Does he want to sacrifice his own daughter so that he can go to war and win over Troy and seek after this big ambitious goal? Or is he going to say, no, I love my daughter, I'm not going to sacrifice my daughter for the sake of ambition? He's way too ambitious. He sacrifices his daughter.

So he achieved this goal of winning over Troy, but when he comes back, because he sacrificed his daughter, his own wife kills him. So that's where we see the sense of the tragic hero, where Agememnon is heroic and going to battle. But. The tragic flaw is that he is way too ambitious and he doesn't know the limits of what his ambition needs to be. This is the problem with the tragic hero.

Tragic hero is somebody who was great. Who's got great virtues. But at the same time, they have a character flaw that ultimately derails them. And that's what we see in Mr. Beast as well.

For Mr. Beast the pursuit of fame the pursuit of being on top of YouTube I think is that fatal flaw. In fact, when Jake, one of his employees talks to dog pack. He says for Mr. Beast his highest goal is to be top on YouTube, be the most watched person ever to be this famous person. Fame often becomes a fatal flaw for tragic heroes. A great real life example of that is Lawrence of Arabia, a British Colonel during world war one, who rallies together the Arab people to fight against the Turks.

He is successful in uniting the Arabian tribes to fight against the Turks that he was crowned by the famous journalist Thomas Lowell, "as the king of Arabia." Even the actual king of Arabia king Feisal called him, "the prince of Mecca." The Turks, who he defeated called him, "the king of the desert." Lawrence of Arabia was famous. But he also was a tragic hero. In order to accomplish his fame, he had to be a part of this massacres that were happening in world war ONE (not two!). And that made him feel very frustrated with himself. In fact he leaves the war, he even changes his name because he doesn't want to be associated with the name Lawrence. He calls himself T E Shaw.

And there he writes, he reflects on his time in the desert. He wrote a book called the seven pillars of wisdom. In which he says, "I was very conscious of the bundled, the powers and entities within me. And there was this craving to be liked so strong and nervous that I could never open myself to a friendly and other," so the desire to be liked is so high that he cannot be honest with even his own friends. Because he doesn't want to say something honest that makes them dislike him. And this is what is behind this is this craving to be famous.

That's the nature of tragic flaw where, even though you have good intentions this deeper flaw in yourself and your character ultimately comes and derails the deeper and good intentions. I was watching  Mr. Beast in a Joe Rogan interview. What intrigued me about him is when Joe Rogan asked him, Hey, what do you do in your free time?

He said, "I always work." that also is a form of a tragic flaw. In the case of te Lawrence, even though he did some bad stuff in the war in order to be famous, he took some time to reflect. To think about it and to write this book called the seven pillars of wisdom.

In fact, the phrase seven pillars of wisdom comes from proverbs chapter 15. Where Solomon talks about for a house to stand, there has to be the seven pillars of wisdom: which are the virtues that you live by. What intrigued me in this interview is that Jimmy never seems to have time to rest and reflect. This rises the question: How is he able to build this life of wisdom? Aristotle said the unexamined life is not worth living. And in that he voiced Socrates.

For life to be worth living it's not just about success, it's not just about working all the time, it's not just about achieving big things. But it is about developing a deeper sense of inner virtue. And then as much as the Mr. Beast does not do that. He will keep tumbling over all these places where in order to be famous he takes certain shortcuts whether it is the lotteries that he does or how he treats his employees or the people who are the contestants in the games, or even his own friends. That ultimately those choices that he makes will derail him if he doesn't take time to examine his own life.

The word that Aristotle uses to talk about this fatal flaw is the word hamartia interestingly in the Bible, the word hamartia as the word that is used for sin. So sometimes it is easy for us to look at other people: the flaws that they have.

But I think it is important for us all to also have a sense of humility to know that, Hey, we all are tempted by the desire for fame. We all are tempted by the desire for attention. So I think there is a need for all of us to be humble. For all of us to make space to slow down and to reflect.

In Matthew chapter seven, towards the end of the Sermon on the Mount, this is what Jesus was talking about. There are two people and one of them has a speck in his eye and another guy has a big log in his eye. And the guy with a big log tells, "Hey, there's a speck in your eye. Let me try to clear it up." And the guy with the speck replies, "hey, first take a log off your eye, and then you can see clearly enough to take the speck from my eye." And what Jesus is doing in that kind of small parable is helping us to see that we all need humility to focus on other people's flaws and take joy in other people's flaws becomes another form of hubris, which itself could become a fatal flaw.

In the age of YouTube celebritydom, the pursuit of fame can tempt even the best of us. My hope is that Mr. Beast takes some time to reflect on his own choices and his life, engaging in inner examination. Instead of doubling down on his fatal flaws, I hope he can emerge as a redeemed hero, rather than becoming a tragic hero derailed by his flaws.