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"A KEY TO SUCCESSFUL LEADERSHIP IS DELEGATION." Last Sun in Manila, I preached on The Words Moses Spoke (Deut 1:1-46) in my gradual attempt to grasp "the whole counsel of God" (Ac 20:27) by studying and preaching on books of the Bible that I am not familiar with. I was particularly impressed by Moses the leader who wisely delegated his leadership to other capable leaders (Deut 1:9-15). John Maxwell, the "leadership guru" expounds on this rule of delegation as a key to successful leaders both in the corporate world and in churches. In theory and principle all church leaders will agree that they delegate their leadership to younger leaders. But
"GOPHER DELEGATION" AND CONTROLLING LEADERS." There is a form of delegation that does not work. Stephen Covey, in his bestseller "The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People" calls it "gopher delegation." The leader tells his junior leaders "go fer this" and "go fer that." It is a delegation where the top leader is still in control by not delegating his authority and power. As a result, junior leaders are still expected to continue to defer to the leader for their approval and consent. Ajith Fernando, in his commentary on Deuteronomy, writes:
"we need to invest in people so that they understand the inside workings of our group. We have to open up ourselves and our dreams to others. Then we have to trust them to carry the ball and move forward. Unfortunately, the controlling type of micromanager may not have people available to take on such responsibilities. Often they have young and enthusiastic workers who are excited by the program and are willing to work under the controlling leader. But once they become mature and have visions of their own, they find the environment too restricting, and they leave. This is usually very painful because often controlling leaders have cared for their people sacrificially. So it is very painful to see them depart."
"GOOD LEADERS (LIKE MOSES) ARE HUMBLE BY WILLING TO SURRENDER THEIR AUTHORITY AND CONTROL." When two individuals were prophesying in their own camp "apart" from the group that met under Moses, Joshua says to Moses, "Stop them" (Num 11:28). But Moses showed that he did not have to have authority and control over them. He said, "Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!" (Num 11:29). Eight verses later, Num 12:3 says that Moses was "more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth." An expression of humility is to allow success by others that is not directly under the leader's authority and control.
"GOOD LEADERS GIVE NEW LEADERS THE FREEDOM TO DO THINGS THEIR WAY." Good leaders not only let go of their authority and control but they also let delegated leaders do things differently from the way that the leader once did. Because personalities differ, leadership styles and methods of doing things will also differ from leader to leader. Great leaders focus on the grand task and impart their vision to others. Then they allow these other leaders to implement the vision they imparted in the way that the other leaders think is best.
I found such leadership that humbly lets go of control and that trusts younger leaders refreshing and truly empowering. What is your experience with your leaders?
Unconventional survival and group living brandish been the two sober, while hypothetically bipolar, aspects of human living from the start of the population. As administrative, technological and taking sides organizations evolved over time, teams brandish emerged as the basic dais of tidy living. The improvement of the new form of certain gave a new meaning and role to teams and link leadership. From the frontline teams at work for departments to the height leadership teams at the swing important corporate futures, manipulate of teams offers its own challenges and opportunities.
Leaders dedicate vision and hopefulness for their teams and in recurrence gain their trust and support. This relationship is not customarily reciprocal; in some luggage leaders trust the teams outstanding than the teams trust them however in unusual luggage the teams trust their leaders outstanding than the leaders trust them. Predictably leaders spanning generations relied on the splendor in succession to take home consensual action and leaned on the easy in succession to stimulate out of action one agendas. The rate amongst the splendor and easy organizations is levered by the leaders out of action their loyalists, with the affiliated pros and cons. This hypothetically perplexing sub-optimization of the link in succession needs a behavioral comprehension.
INTENSITY DESIRES POSITION
Government of new day organizations, whether business, administrative or taking sides, has become a outstanding violent and uncomfortable container than ever, with a time-consuming expectation devolving on the leaders. In today's competitive milieu, the leaders are required to build cohesive, high performance leadership teams with high competency metrics to be able to become peaceful their cloudy responsibilities. In a well- hanging leadership link all missions, domains and members requirement display unchanged expertise and evoke unchanged confidence.
Yet, it is not odd for leaders to be fussy in the way they reduction their confidence spanning missions, domains and members. Clear members gain outstanding confidence than others out of action well demonstrated reliability. Clear members gain outstanding gratefulness than others out of action well demonstrated performance. Devotion is steadily accompanied by total submissiveness to the leader however expertise is accompanied by a self-possessed degree of disinterest. A leader as by far as a link associate needs to divulge amongst reliability and expertise in an clerical context.
CONFIDANTS AND LOYALISTS
Each reliability and expertise brandish qualities if they are aligned to ornamental the performance of the entity. A well-behaved compatriot in a leadership link is someone who not only appreciates the leader's ideas and personality but further improvises on it for better corporate performance. A well-behaved compatriot becomes the leader's confidant. The well-behaved confidant wins wisp from the leader and the link not slightly while of his reliability and attentiveness but further while of his performance and perspectives. A confidant becomes a trouble cannon, and directly a progeny to the leader. From Henry Kissinger of the US Decree to Steve Ballmer of Microsoft Enterprise, clerical history has casing studies of link members who fused expertise and reliability to cut into as highest forces of teams. A compatriot who is only marginally well-behaved or is directly bungling, on the unusual end, drags down clerical performance. Common loyalists training, act and speak as proxies for their leaders skewing the clerical rate in the total.
In the uncomfortable new day organizations, confidants who are trouble shooters are welcome in the teams; they directly presage a usually Darwinian way of leadership viewing. On the unusual end, link members who outlook a reliability prompted role requirement be less than welcome; they suffocate disinterest and sovereignty, steadily bringing discrimination into executive processes. A well-behaved confidant has the right perspectives for the doom. An homely compatriot thus far for the most part vestige in the earlier.
Well-matched confidants plagiarize an organization's shot into the doom however homely loyalists impede its ability to move with, let alone to the fore of, times. A compatriot, customarily waiting for the leader's cue, adopts a weigh up approach that inhibits unprejudiced and proactive thinking on the part of others. A confidant who is appropriate optimistic of his qualification as well as reliability is, on unusual end, inclined to directly promptly differ with the leader as long as it would such challenge helps the company's doom.
Apart from these factors, leaders apparently awareness to brandish outstanding run-of-the-mill loyalists than out-of-the-box confidants in their teams. Similar to a compatriot gets preference for reliability fairly than expertise to grasp get ready missions, the very program signifies a sub-optimal performance usual that weighs down the thoroughly clerical performance. Yet, the loyalist's submissiveness instincts and the leader's preeminence compulsions make for an baffling mix. The key to the fool, thus far, dishonesty in the leadership realpolitik that pervades organizations.
LEADERSHIP 'REALPOLITIK'
Demanding leadership and manipulate challenges are elaborate in setting up and going up business corporations or administrative entities. These challenges quality, in the midst of others, crafting of a aura, drafting of a strategy, product of an clerical body, raising of resources, beginning of facilities, conference of inputs, opening up of partnerships and bigger all, high quality product unloading for the souk, all of which count on a high level of business gratefulness and handy superiority. These activities further need to be continuously fine-tuned to board and directly carry on to the fore of the vault equal. Certainly suitably, superior leadership and manipulate skills are called for on the part of not only the business leaders but further his or her leadership link.
That assumed, dowry is a size of realpolitik beyond the textbook definition of leadership and manipulate that governs corporate or administrative leadership. Realpolitik has its origin in politics or discernment which dictates formulation of policies and actions based primary on dexterous considerations, fairly than ideological consideration. The term realpolitik, thus far, further pejoratively implies politics that are power-centric, and not deeply principle-centric and which are steadily Machiavellian. Control organizations requires not only leadership skills but realpolitik attributes to be able to delay at the swing, delightful compound internal and irrelevant stakeholder pulls and pressures. Leaders being further careerists as qualities also need loyalists to be in state of the corporate ship cruising in the choppy business waters.
Partisan - Comic IN THE PACK?
The homely compatriot is very by far like a mess about in a pack of cards (NO PUN INEVITABLE). Dwell in who decode card exercise understand that the mess about card plays an tremendously satisfactory (AND SPORADICALLY FLAWED) role in a card hunt. A mess about card can whip for any card of any arrange, machine or deprave and thus affords earth-shaking breathing space in forming up and about sequences and sets. The outlook of a mess about card surprises the rest by forcing a more rapidly win than is overall calculated. At what time in a hunt of cards serving of mess about cards is a matter of disregard, in an clerical setting the improvement of compatriot in a link is a matter of historical inheritance as by far as it is a draftswoman act.
A study of corporations that brandish seen clear failures, from Enron to Lehman, points out that unbridled power of the corporate leaders has been a instigate fetch of corporate fail. Such defect comes with circumvention of processes out of action aggravated manipulate of leadership teams. A pinnacle financial overseer or a pinnacle business overseer in some luggage and a pinnacle logical overseer or a pinnacle publicity overseer in unusual luggage brandish enabled the usually highest corporate leaders slat on amazingly adventurous paths. Castle-in-the-air concepts of virtual plunge trading and bubble-beyond-reality of sub-prime lending are solicitous of how confidants of corporate leaders possibly will commandeering organizations and splotch economies. The leader's compatriot provides a total flexibility to the leadership fiber to the expenditure of clerical doughtiness.
DEVOTION INFORMATION THE AMOUNT
Characteristically a leadership link varies in size depending on whether the company is functionally tidy or divisionally managed and whether it is neighboring or global in its attendance. The category of views in large teams can at times be highly vexatious and energy-consuming for corporate leaders. The leader can exercise positional power only to a controlled open out to take home population. Realpolitik comes in constructive to perk up paradigms based on acute conclusions fairly than backbreaking debate, directly if the when were to be satisfactory in the long term.
Heads of corporate functions are further pleasant for the corporate leaders in draft business realignments. That is while they brandish the qualification to influence doom policy, give over resources, current of air manpower and state self-possessed normal air force. The strengths of sum business operations can be proficiently damaged by the realpolitik of normal air force with a shawl of corporate optimization. Loyalists can be divisive too. The compatriot can envisage fore attacks on injurious members at the order of his leader, fracturing the leadership link into compound fractions. The leader finds it easy to match his policy with a alienated house anyhow a split expertise. In all of the scenarios discussed bigger, the leaders carry on on but the businesses twiddle your thumbs.
DEVOTION TO THE HIGH-CLASS OR WHIRL FOR THE PARTICIPANT
The unwarranted significance on a exceptional leader as the driver of corporate growth is in appealing link with the flight of the imagination mechanisms put in place for stall muddle and corporate power. The yet immense manage the leader has come to do well on corporate interaction has led to the spawning of the reliability elegance to the expenditure of attentiveness to the company. Hard leaders necessity put down the allure to outlook reliability for him from his link members and to be more precise fuel his link members to perk up passion for the company. Prophesy leaders have a high opinion of that it is the institutions that are eternal and leadership achievements get to but tarn chapters in unceasing histories of enterprises.
The competence-loyalty dichotomy disappears at whatever time it is realized by the leader and the link members that the leadership interests are best served only at whatever time the corporate interests are best served. Assemble members who brandish ample reliability for the leader but only some passion for the business are a responsibility however members who are unprejudiced of the leader but angry about the company are an grip. Whirl for business emanates from an inbred self-control to take home self-actualization however reliability for leader comes from a calm instinct to further joint elaboration. Taking into consideration the suppose that institutions are outsized than directly the frequent who appreciate or grow them is physical the competence-loyalty logic gets unquestionable irretrievably in bend of the former.
COMPETENCIES METIER CONGLOMERATES
Companies with a far along and optimistic leader and a large number of well-behaved confidants brandish sketchily evolved as successful conglomerates and in due course became leading technological houses. Noble performance teams are an grip to the company directly while sum business leaders occur to challenge corporate keep in check. Fine business leaders conscientiously perform but further promptly statement part for performance. They are headstrong of their twig and business decree and view their performance as a transfer to position them as the doom leaders. In a worldwide or a diversified business, business leaders compete, fairly than work together, to appreciate their credentials. Passed away rampant, the leadership battles can be self-consuming.
In such organizations, diametrically opposed aspirations compete for past resources, eccentric businesses influence up at eccentric points of abuse twist and glowing desires lead to clerical bushfires. The corporate leadership teams in such organizations are spring to be in dutiful trouble. In a worldwide certain, the confidant usually emerges from the businesses preference by the corporate leader or remove corporate functions close to the corporate leader. The able leader in such situations chooses a performance driver and an opinion designer from the leadership link to quadrangle the compound directions of a worldwide. Spend time at conglomerates brandish has-been to manipulate their diversified positioning and cremation resources impartially due to the defect to get bigger well-behaved confidants spanning the spectrum. Existing is no pretext why only Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services and Tata Steel requirement be the flagship companies of the Tata Line at whatever time with the right pact amongst the group leader and business confidants, the Line would brandish been a leader in various unusual segments like power and chemicals.
RIGHT AMID POSITION
Indian business families brandish discovered to their nice that the suggestion of having loyalists is noxious to the professionalization and growth of family businesses. Not here are the time at whatever time trusted family lieutenants bereft of academic qualifications or business experience subjugated the boards or manipulate teams innocently while of key usual deepness and entrenched reliability towards the family. The fast forward growth of Indian family businesses can be traced to the downplaying of the compatriot elegance.
Similar to family businesses brandish gone out of action this positive transformation, it is peculiar that professional organizations, requirement yield to the compatriot elegance. A adjunct on reliability as a proxy to leadership is astringent in that it weakens the resolution of the leadership link to logic issues impartially and professionally. The compatriot elegance is further debilitative as it enhances non-formal decree and misaligns splendor and easy clerical structures. The leaders who find the reliability elegance to be means to begin with steadily find their own leadership decree feeble in due course.
A moral leadership link is one which is open, gauzy and concentrated in discussing aura, goals and strategies, in making resource allocations and in measuring and agreeable performance. At what time sum businesses, domains and members of a leadership link need to be competitive, the dynamics requirement be hanging by self-regulation. As well however teams need to be integrated and aligned with the leadership, the mechanics requirement be supported by charge individualism provided by the leader.
A corporate leader and his link brandish earth-shaking strategic responsibilities towards the company and all its stakeholders. A corporate leader who expresses open confidence in the link, not up to standard the loyalists would field the corporate performance out of action concentrated equal. Unconventional members can support this total by acquiring cross-functional and cross-business skills which possibly will help them stream also in strategic debate. A unquestionably integrated and aligned leadership link with high competency metrics will be examine inspiring for a company or an technological house, and its stakeholders.
"POSTED BY DR CB RAO ON NOVEMBER 29, 2009"
"APQC's (American Productivity ">an article published on their site on March 4 called "The "Secrets" of Leadership Development. Here's the full interview, reprinted with permission:"APQC'S LEADERSHIP DEFICIT SURVEY RESEARCH FOUND THAT LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS TODAY ARE CONSIDERED BY MANY TO BE INEFFECTIVE. WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE SOME OF THE MOST COMMON LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT MISTAKES THAT ORGANIZATIONS MAKE? HOW COULD THESE BE FIXED SO THAT LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS WILL BE MORE EFFECTIVE?
The "secrets" of leadership development are no longer secrets. The ones that consistently do it well year over year-the GEs, P MSO-ANSI-LANGUAGE: EN;">ONE OF THE TOP DRIVERS OF THE LEADERSHIP SKILLS DEFICIT, ACCORDING TO OUR RESEARCH, IS THAT A DIFFERENT STYLE OF LEADERSHIP IS REQUIRED AND THAT CURRENT LEADERS ARE RESISTANT TO CHANGING HOW THEY LEAD. BASED ON YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH EXECUTIVE DEVELOPMENT, WHAT ARE SOME STEPS THAT ORGANIZATIONS COULD TAKE TO PROVIDE ONGOING DEVELOPMENT TO CURRENT EXECUTIVES?
Successful executives are often, if not always hesitant to change their behaviors. After all, why should they? They often connect those same behaviors to their success (cause and effect). Sometimes they are right, sometimes they are successful in spite of some ineffective behaviors, and sometimes new challenges require a different set of skills and behaviors.I've found the best way to help executives see the need to change how they lead (without changing who they are) is to use 360 assessments, feedback, and coaching. It's like holding a mirror up to them and saying "see, this is how you're coming across to others and the impact it's having on them." Actually, you don't have to say anything-the data speaks for itself. Then it's a matter of helping them identify new behaviors to replace the ineffective ones, and helping them practice until they start to see improved results.
YOU WROTE A VERY USEFUL BLOG POST TITLED HOW TO BE A LEADER IN A CRAPPY CULTURE. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY ARE THE ELEMENTS THAT MAKE UP AN ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE THAT ENCOURAGES GREAT LEADERSHIP?Thanks, I got a lot of nice emails as a result of that post (How to Be a Leader in a Crappy Culture).
Cultural elements that encourage great leadership would be a strong set of articulated leadership values, role modeling from all levels, openness to feedback and learning, and organizational structures that support leadership development.OUR SURVEY FOUND THAT ONE OF THE DRIVERS BEHIND THE LEADERSHIP DEFICIT IS THAT AT MANY ORGANIZATIONS' SELECTION, DEVELOPMENT, AND REWARD PRACTICES ARE ENCOURAGING AN OUTDATED STYLE OF LEADERSHIP. YOU WROTE A BLOG POST TITLED HOW "STRATEGICALLY ALIGNED" IS YOUR LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM? HOW CAN HR MAKE SURE THAT HR PRACTICES ARE ALIGNED WITH THE TYPE OF LEADERSHIP THAT THE ORGANIZATION REQUIRES?
Hmmm, that's the second time you've used the term "outdated style of leadership." I'm not sure great leadership-specifically the competencies that make up great leadership-ever really go out of style. Given that, every organization needs to put a different emphasis on critical competencies that are needed to achieve their business objectives. It's a "connect the dots" exercise: Business strategy X requires leadership competencies A, B, C, and D. So, all of our HR practices (success profiles, selection criteria, rewards, development programs, 360 assessments, etc...) need to be aligned to build these critical leadership competencies. In practice, it's not that easy. Picking that handful of critical competencies is "hard"... and often gets muddied up with politics and bureaucracy, and the temptation to take shortcuts.
CEOS ARE OFTEN CITED AS BEING VERY CONCERNED ABOUT A LEADERSHIP SHORTAGE, YET OUR SURVEY FOUND THAT LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT IS UNDERFUNDED AT MANY ORGANIZATIONS. YOU HAVE WRITTEN A LOT ABOUT THE ROLE THAT CEO'S PLAY IN GREAT LEADERSHIP. WHY DO YOU THINK THAT THERE IS A DISCONNECT BETWEEN WHAT CEOS SAY IS A PRIORITY AND WHERE INVESTMENTS ARE BEING MADE? WHAT COULD AN ORGANIZATION DO TO FIX THIS DISCONNECT?CEOs say "a lot" of things are a top priority. You are the right-the proof of what is really seen as important is what's funded, where the CEO spends time, and what's discussed at the monthly operating reviews. I wish I had a prescription for that one-i.e., how to get your CEO to make it a priority. Some have had success taking a business case approach, some have turned the tide doing pilots and getting measurable results. Sometimes CEOs are exposed to something (peers, an event) that makes them come back with religion, and sometimes, if it's not too late, the pain (poor results, lack of successors, inability to fill critical positions, etc...) becomes so intolerable that they are compelled to finally get serious and take action.
APQC'S SURVEY FOUND THAT DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP SKILLS IN ALL EMPLOYEES IS ASSOCIATED WITH AN ORGANIZATION HAVING A SMALLER LEADERSHIP SKILLS GAP AND THAT ORGANIZATIONS USING A MORE INCLUSIVE, LESS HIERARCHICAL STYLE OF LEADERSHIP ALSO HAVE SMALLER SKILLS GAPS. GIVEN THESE FINDINGS, DO YOU THINK THERE IS STILL A ROLE FOR HIGH POTENTIAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS? WHY OR WHY NOT? Absolutely! High potential programs are just one type of leadership development-and should never be at the expense of everyone else. Everyone needs some kind of development-it will only make the organization stronger, so I'm not surprised by those survey results. However, some employees have more potential to assume larger roles than others, so the type of development they get is different-designed to get them ready for those larger roles.
Book Review:
The Mass Psychology of Fascism (1946), by Wilhelm Reich
(c) 2007 L.L. WilliamsHTTP://WWW.KONFLUENCE.ORG/FASCISM.HTML
We have defeated communism but have we defeated fascism? Examining the transformation to fascist dictatorship experienced by Germany in the 1920s and 1930s, one finds no reason that it could not happen again. Sure, Hitler was crazy, but how did he recruit millions of accomplices?
One plausible idea that does not presume millions of people are "evil" is to try to understand humanity in terms of elemental forces that transcend the boundaries of their everyday, individualistic, rational levels of being.
A simple example is the herd and flocking instincts seen in many animal species. Each individual feels an elemental force to conform to a single group. Out of their multitudes a single agglomeration appears whose motions may not perfectly overlap with the interests of its individuals.
In human political groups, the leaders may undertake policies which are detrimental to the individual interests. For example, a "conservative" political party may use the powers of government to benefit a very powerful few at the expense of the multitudes. Yet the same party maintains popular support among the people most hurt by its policies. As Wilhelm Reich confirms, the means by which leaders maintain power in the light of such contradiction is the psychology of fascism.
THE MASS PSYCHOLOGY OF FASCISM (MPF) STARTS BY POSING THAT VERY QUESTION: WHY DO INDIVIDUALS LEND THEIR SUPPORT TO GROUPS THAT HURT THEM? MPF IS FULL OF GREAT INSIGHTS AND ALSO A FEW SCREWY THINGS I AM NOT SO SURE ABOUT. TO APPRECIATE REICH'S BOOK, ONE MUST MAKE ALLOWANCE FOR HOW THE WORLD WAS WHEN IT WAS PUBLISHED, 60 YEARS AGO.
At the end of World War II, it was realized that a fascist dictatorship (Nazi Germany) had almost pulverized the communist revolution (Russia). Reich sought to understand in general how a significant fraction of the working peoples of the world (Germany) turn away from the communist propaganda which was geared toward the common man. Reich calls this disconnect between self interest and party loyalty "the cleavage."
Reich balances the scales in this case of irrational self-interest by invoking mysticism as a party policy. He ascribes mysticism as much a force in the motion of the people as is their self-interest. Reich says this is where the Marxists failed: they did not speak to the soul of the people, only their self-interest. The mysticism of the Nazis triumphed over Marxist economic theory. Reich would say that ideology is a material force.
To pose the question of why impoverished masses could become nationalistic, Reich considers the inexorable logic that would pertain in the absence of mysticism:
"The basic Marxist conception grasped the facts that labor was exploited as a commodity, that capital was concentrated in the hands of the few, and that the latter entailed the progressive pauperization of the majority of working humanity. It was from this process that Marx arrived at the necessity of "expropriating the expropriators."
According to this conception, the forces of production of capitalist society transcend the limits of the modes of production. The contradiction between social production and private appropriation of the products of capital can only be cleared up by the balancing of the modes of production with the level of the forces of production. Social production must be complemented by the social appropriation of the products. The first act of this assimilation is social revolution; this is the basic economic principle of Marxism. This assimilation can take place, it is said, only if the pauperized majority establishes the `dictatorship of the proletariat' as the dictatorship of the working majority over the minority of the now expropriated owners of the means of production."[p8]
Of course, the dictatorship of the proletariat became the dictatorship of the few anyway. But in 1946, as now, the social question about devotion to a cause which is counter to material self interest still remains.
With idealogy or mysticism admitted as a material, economic force, Reich makes the self-evidently simple statement that "every social order produces in the masses of its members that structure which it needs to achieve its main aims... In every epoch the ideas of the ruling class are the ruling ideas...The class which has the means of material production at its disposal also has the means of `ideological production' at its disposal.
Reich contends that "the contradictions of the economic structure of a society are also embedded in the psychological structure of the subjugated masses." Reich calls it "the mainstay of the state apparatus."
As he probes the roots of this psychological cleavage, Reich attributes much to Freudian sex-oriented psychology and a concept of sex economy. Evidently, sex economy is based on control through sexual repression and suppression. Reich finds a strong link between sexual suppression and economic exploitation.
Reich sees the roots of authoritarianism in the authoritarian family: "Man's authoritarian structure is... produced by the embedding of sexual inhibitions and fear in the living substance of sexual impulses." Somehow sexual repression makes people submissive and impotent. The resulting conservatism and fear of freedom is what Reich calls "reactionary thinking."
Sexual repression, according to Reich, leads to substitute gratifications and the distortion of natural aggression into brutal sadism, which itself is part of a mass-psychological basis for imperial wars. Reich maintains that sexual repression can lead a man to act, feel, and think contrary to his own material interests. The sexual repression and its attendant effects is evidently achieved through ideology and mysticism.
Reich claims honor and duty are substitute gratifications for the sexual repression, and their ecstasy is genuine. Evidently Reich feels the sexual repression leads to mysticism, and that these feelings of honor and duty are part of mysticism. "All the elements of the reactionary man's structure are developed in this struggle [to resist the temptation to masturbate]. Every form of mysticism derives its most active energy... from this compulsory suppression of sexuality." Reich goes on and on about sexual repression, sexuality, and exploitation.
The authoritarian state is reflected in every family in the father. The family is an instrument of power of the state. As father is to family, fuhrer is to nation. "In their subjective emotional core the notions of homeland and nation are notions of mother and family." Although Reich tend to view the patriarchal family as more of a tool of authoritarianism than the matriarchal family.
"How it comes about that the psychic structures of the supporting strata of a society are so constructed that they fit the economic framework and serve the purposes of the ruling powers as precisely as the parts of a precision machine will long remain an unsolved riddle...What we describe as the structural reproductionn of a society's economic system in the psychology of the masses is the basic mechanism in the process of the formation of political ideas."[p54]
The Nazis characterized themselves as "an elementary movement, it cannot be gotten at with `arguments'." Their rally speeches were conspicuous for operating upon the emotions of the masses and avoiding relevant arguments as much as possible. Hitler claimed that true mass psychological tactics dispense with argumentation and keep the masses' attention fixed on the `great final goal' at all times.
Reich gives some discussion to the importance of the middle class to Nazism, and their role in the subjugation of the lower classes. He characterizes them with an "army sergeant" psychology. They are dependent on the upper class and on governmental authority for their position. Such a person begins to take on the attitudes of the ruling class and a corresponding cleavage between his economic situation and his ideology.
There is a tie between national and familial ties in the lower middle classes. The fuhrer arouses emotional family ties in the masses, and this makes him an authoritarian father figure. He attracts all the emotional attitudes that were meant at one time for the father. The masses had need for protection and were allowing the dictator to manage their needs.
The more helpless the mass-individual becomes, the more pronounced his identification with the fuhrer, and the childish need for protection is disguised in the form of feeling at one with the fuhrer. It is basically the self-confidence one may derive from greatness of the nation [Ed: or today, I would say sports teams].
Fascism is a problem of the masses, not of Hitler as a person or of the politics of the Nazi party. This is perhaps the main conclusion. Reich discusses symbology and racism, and provides more depth on the tie between sexual repression and mysticism, other aspects of sex economy.
Authoritarian society reproduces itself in the individual structures of the masses with the help of the authoritarian family. Therefore the authoritarian family is defended as the basis of the state. This propaganda mines deep emotional forces. Reich seems to think a sexual revolution would shatter authoritarianism when he says "sexually awakened women... would mean the complete collapse of the authoritarian ideology." There may be a kernel of truth to this in the sexual revolution of the 1960s.
"The man reared under and bound by authority has no knowledge of the natural law of self-regulation; he has no confidence in himself."
There is a "dictator's soil of mass psychology" which constitutes fascism's strength.
Mysticism diverts attention from daily misery, to prevent a revolt against the real causes of misery. To fight the mystical thinking on which fascism is built is a way to fight fascism. Education tends to eradicate mystical thinking.
"The reactionary man (fascist) assumes an intimate relation between family, nation, and religion."
"It is in the nature of a political party that it does not orient itself in terms of truth, but in terms of illusions, which usually correspond to the irrational structure of the masses."
"The word fascism is not a word of abuse any more than the word capitalism is. It is a concept denoting a very definite kind of mass leadership and mass influence: authoritarian, one-party system, hence totalitarianism, a system in which power takes priority over objective interests, and facts are distorted for political purposes."
Reich feels that the Russian revolution started as democracy, that Lenin and Marx were both bourgeois property owners advocating a new form of democracy, but that under Stalin it became nationalism. Reich correlates the deterioration into totalitarianism to the fact that the sexual revolution was suppressed. The failure of the Russian revolution was due to the irrationality of the masses, whereas the revolution appealed only to economic rationality. Marx never mentioned the state as a goal. "...the founders of the Russian revolution had no inkling of the biopathic nature of the masses. As Lenin conceived it, the dictatorship of the proletariat was to become the authority that had to be created to abolish every kind of authority." Engels viewed the state, in fact, as a mere tool of oppression of the weaker class by the economically dominant class. Reich goes on with a compelling analysis of the failure of the Russian Revolution.
Contrary to the view that masses will always eventually liberate themselves, Reich feels they are doomed to enslavement. Instead, they can be shaped and molded to suit any ends. They are in fact incapable of freedom. The points in history where a new stage is reached, such as the American and Russian revolutions, are somewhat accidental coincidences of events. Yet Reich found room for hope. People can become capable of freedom. Since the incapability of freedom is rooted in "social suppression of gential sexuality", freedom could be realized if suppression were removed.
Reich differs with the analysis of Fromm, who tied totalitarianism to fear of freedom and craving of authority. The core reason of sexual suppression is "inaccessible to rational understanding." Social revolutions based on purely economic considerations could not compete. In modern times, Reich would say "its not just the economy, stupid."
Reich goes on to a detailed consideration of how the state and bureaucracy becomes instruments of oppression and totalitarianism.
IN SUMMARY:
* THE MASSES ARE IRRATIONAL
* THEIR MASS ORGANIZATION WILL REFLECT THIS IRRATIONALITY
* IRRATIONALITY IS AS BIG A MOTIVE FACTOR AS ANY ECONOMIC OR RATIONAL CONSIDERATION
* SEXUAL SUPPRESSION IS A TOOL OF OPPRESSION
* TOTALITARIANISM IS A PROBLEM OF THE MASSES, NOT OF THE LEADERS
* FREEDOM IS A CAPABILITY OF THE MASSES, NOT OF THE LEADERS
LET LIVE IF YOU WANT TO LIVE
Go ahead is an remarkable Politician Be interested in Item (OLQ). An politician is established to be good leader as the committee of several people is on him/her and in addition as an politician you are established to resist decisions and conduct them at the spur of the exact. In SSB out of the roughly qualities which are check leadership dress great consequence. So you take to project yourself as a true leader. Absent are the days in the role of leaders were natural not made, each one of you is a leader, it's just the matter of accent. In this article I am penning down a few situations but you can project your leadership. Previously you read that, keep one aim in mind regularly, here is difference with being a leader and being interfering, a leader leads by example, a leader cares for his subordinates.Translate high-class >>Click to Buy Log SSB Cross-examination Books
