1A. Immature Leadership: President Trump?
Peter Milhado, an American psychologist, identified about 10 years ago characteristics of men who never grow up. First, I will summarize what he describes as their key attributes. Subsequently, I will explore Theo Veldsman’s view of immature leadership. The reader can determine the extent to which these analyses describe Trump and help to explain the nature of his leadership.
Milhado’s puer aeturnus
To Milhado, a puer aeturnus believes masculinity is vitally important. This sense of masculinity must be won by struggle, by taking a stand, overcoming inertia, deciding and acting more by gaining muscle and competence in the world of men.… Read the rest
Moral Injury?
Can a nation suffer moral injury? I recently read an editorial with this title. James Childs, the author of the editorial, teaches at Trinity Lutheran Seminary at Capitol University in Columbus, Ohio. Apparently, he’s familiar with the field of moral injury as applied to combat veterans. The Defense Department describes moral injury as an extreme and unprecedented life experience that transgresses deeply held moral beliefs and expectations.
A combat veteran of the second Iraqi war illustrates a sense of moral injury: “Moral injury describes my disillusionment, the erosion of my sense of place in the world. The spiritual and emotional foundations of the world disappeared and made it impossible for me to sleep the sleep of the just … I have a feeling of intense betrayal, and the betrayer and the betrayed are the same person, my very self… What I lost in the Iraq war was a world that makes moral sense.”
Childs cautiously believes a sense of moral injury can be applicable to a nation.… Read the rest
1B. Immature Leadership: President Trump?
A very recent paper by Scott Allison and others from the University of Richmond focuses directly on immature leadership and Donald Trump. The paper explores what it means for a person to show maturity as a leader. It also describes the developmental stages required to demonstrate mature leadership. The authors suggest the pinnacle of mature leadership is what they label as heroic transforming leadership. Two characteristics mark such leadership: unitive consciousness and non-dualistic thinking.
Unitive Consciousness
In Western society the authors suggest one becomes a mature leader by a process of becoming a hero. At the conclusion of this journey the hero is transformed into a wise elder.… Read the rest
Intellectual Humility
What might be a good candidate for a necessary personality characteristic for leading in complex, uncertain, and ambiguous times? I would nominate intellectual humility. IH involves recognizing that one’s beliefs and opinions may be incorrect. I note its resemblance to the notion of fallibilism in pragmatic philosophy, where one acknowledges that a personal belief may be fallible.
Psychological research sees intellectual humility as independent, different, from low self-confidence and even from the general notion of humility. Intellectual humility (IH) deals with how people think about themselves and the world. One might consider it a meta-cognitive that involves how one thinks about one’s thoughts.… Read the rest
Empathetic Deliberative Democracy
An aspect of the theory of democracy focuses on deliberative democracy. Simply put, deliberative democracy posits that political decisions should be the result of reasonable, fair discussion and debate among citizens. Some claim the primary benefit of deliberative democracy is its ability to arrive at the truth about an issue or a problem. Deliberative democracy promotes truth and accuracy, in other words.
Generating empathy
Michael Hannon, however, is developing another aspect of deliberative democracy. In a recent paper, he suggests that the primary objective of deliberation should be the production of empathy. He does not denigrate the significance of truth seeking but says that developing understanding among citizens may be even more important than truth seeking.… Read the rest
Demographics and Left vs. Right
As the 2020 election draws nearer publicity about the growing political and cultural divide becomes more prominent. The increasing progressive agenda of Democrats certainly bolsters discussion about this division. However, a recent report by the U.S. Census, The Graying of America, suggests that demographics could be more important.
Baby Boomers, people now aged between 55 and 73 years, are driving this significant demographic shift. As they age, this large demographic cohort expands the number of older adults. The Census Bureau projects that in 2030 older Americans, those older than 65, will comprise 21% of the population. This compares with today’s percentage of 15%.… Read the rest
Hubristic Leadership and Trump (1 of 2)
The media most prominently mention narcissism as Trump’s key personality characteristic. I will discuss this topic in a later post. Although Trump’s narcissism influences the way he leads, I think the hubris personality characteristic best explains Trump’s leadership. Unlike narcissism hubris does not have a common, clear definition. Hubris, however, has enough clarity to allow its use in connection with leadership. Hubris also has some similarity to two other concepts found in the leadership literature, core self-evaluation and intuition.
The research literature sees hubris as an acquired personality disorder characterized by recklessness, contempt, and lack of attention to details. This disorder becomes manifest in the holding of largely unfettered power.… Read the rest
Hubris, Trump, and Leadership (2 of 2)
Given the dangers, sometimes very significant, of hubristic decision making and leadership, what can minimize or prevent dangerous overreach by leaders? Unfortunately, the very adverse consequences of hubristic leaders are often not known ahead of time, which makes for a particularly difficult challenge. Also, the past successes of hubristic leaders often make them unwilling or unable to change.
In political circles doubt often becomes a luxury the hubristic leader sees as unaffordable. This adverse belief about doubt becomes compelling when the leader surrounds himself or herself with “yes” persons. Trump faces an especially difficult situation because he operated his real estate and branding businesses as a small family business where he alone made all the key decisions.… Read the rest
Introduction to Part 2 (1 of 2)
In my “outline of posts” page I say this: “The reading and thinking about our polity and society that I have undertaken the last couple of years has made me believe that our current times are significantly precarious, more so than the mid-1960s to the early 1970s. I have gone from a simplistic and perhaps naïve optimism about our country to a view that is at best minimally pessimistic.”
Several considerations generated my move from optimism to at best minimally pessimistic. I now briefly recount these considerations as an introduction to part 2 of my posts, although I have already made a few entries into the second part of my posts’ schema.… Read the rest
Introduction to Part 2 (2 of 2)
In the first part of this two-part post I discussed one reason for my move from perhaps a naïve optimism to moderate pessimism about today’s polity and society. In this post, I discuss several additional reasons for my change in attitude.
One is the deep, intense political polarization now present in our polity and society. I think it important to differentiate between strong cultural divides or polarizations and our deep political polarization. During the past several decades the country witnessed several significant cultural divisions that were not aimed at or involved specific political parties.
In the 1950s, the Supreme Court’s Brown v.… Read the rest
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