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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. Leadership and Concerted Action - 33. The American Pattern of Individual Leadership and Mass Passivity - 1. “Intelligent Leadership”
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CHAPTER 33
THE AMERICAN PATTERN OF INDIVIDUAL
LEADERSHIP AND MASS PASSIVITY
I. “Intelligent Leadership”
Despite the democratic organization of American society with its em-
phasis upon liberty, equality of opportunity (with a strong leaning in favor
of the underdog), and individualism,*^ the idea of leadership pervades
American thought and collective action. The demand for “intelligent
leadership” is raised in all political camps, social and professional groups^
and, indeed, in every collective activity centered around any interest or
purpose—church, school, business, recreation, philanthropy, the campus
life of a college, the entertaining of a group of visitors, the selling of a
patent medicine, the propagation of an idea or of an interest. As a standard
demand it appears with great frequency in public speeches and newspaper
editorials and will seldom be absent even when the social reformer or the
social scientist speaks.
If an ordinary American faces a situation which he recognizes as a
“problem” without having any specific views as to how to “solve” it, he
tends to resort to two general recommendations: one, traditionally, is
“education” 5
the other is “leadership.” The belief in “education” is a part
of, or a principal conclusion from, the American Creed.^ The demand for
“leadership” plays on a different plane of his personality. It is a result less
of a conscious ideological principle than of a pragmatic approach to those
activities which require the cooperation of many individuals. For this reason
it is also much less a part of Americans^ self-knowledge. While the demo-
cratic Creed and the belief in education are an ever present popular theory
with highest national sanctions—^held conscious not only by affirmative
references in practically every solemn public utterance, but also maintained
by an ever growing literature—it will be found that Americans in general
are quite unaware that the leadership idea is a particular characteristic of
their culture. Since the leadership concept—though, with a quite different
import—has recently become associated with fascism and nazism, it is
See Chapter i
.
**See Chapters i and 41.
709
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