The
highest level of human growth, according to Abraham Maslow, is that of
transcendence. Transcendence, for Maslow, encompasses the need to rise above
the interests of the self, to find fulfillment in helping others reach their
potential (Jean Lipman-Blumen, The Allure of Toxic Leaders:
Why We Follow
Destructive Bosses and Corrupt Politicians – and How We Can Resist Them
(Oxford: Oxford University Press)
p 129).
According
to Lipman-Blumen, control myths are rationalisations that we use to persuade
ourselves to act or desist from acting, and these are deep-buried in our
subconscious existential, psychological and psychosocial needs. “Both because
of and despite the fact that they travel incognito, these powerful control
myths prevent us from even attempting to overthrow toxic leaders (p 130).” She
lists several control myths, but the most powerful and positive ones come at
the end, or at the top, for they promise ennoblement and immortality, thus
speaking to the needs that Maslow describes as self-esteem, self-actualisation
and transcendence. A few samples follow (pp 135-136).
“This
leader is an unique being. Participating in his/her vision will make me unique,
too.” (Self-esteem and belonging; self-actualisation and transcendence.)
“Whatever
promises the leader makes will come true.” (Safety)
“This
leader’s vision is so ennobling, I would follow her to the ends of the earth.”
(Self-actualisation and transcendence)
“When
I am part of the leader’s group, I can do no wrong.” (Aesthetic [order,
symmetry and beauty]; self-actualisation and transcendence)
“Being
part of the leader’s group fills me with a sense of doing something really
important.” (Cognition and transcendence)
“The
vision is worth any sacrifice.” (Transcendence)
“Attaining
the vision through my heroic efforts will earn me immortality.” (Transcendence)
The
writer adds: “Believing in the special, god-like qualities of the leader makes
it difficult to evaluate his claims to mana.”
“They
beat her to death with their clubs,” wrote
a student about his teacher. “It was immensely satisfying.”
“The
Great Proletarian Cultural Revolutionary bugle to advance” first sounded 52
years ago, on May 16th 1966, when Mao approved a secret circular declaring war
on “representatives of the bourgeoisie” who had “sneaked into the Communist
Party, the government, the army and various spheres of culture”. Between May
1966 and Mao’s death in 1976, which in effect ended the Cultural Revolution,
over 1 million died, millions more were banished from urban homes to the
countryside and tens of millions were humiliated or tortured.
How
could an entire nation follow a toxic leader like Mao Zedong? Jean Marie-Lupmen
has a few answers. She also explains the allure of toxic leaders in Bangladesh,
Pakistan, India and other places like Cambodia and the Soviet Union.
Mao
stood on the threshold of Paradise, Communism, the end of prehistory and the
beginning of history. A few million deaths seemed a paltry sacrifice in a
cost-benefit analysis. He stood at the terminus of human civilisation, the Prophet
over the Promised Land, with his eager Communist disciples.
Charles
Taylor, although the winner of the Templeton Prize, is clear-eyed about the
history of Christianity, unlike Larry Siedentop, and the dangers to the devout. He observes:
“So
religious faith can be dangerous. Opening to transcendence is fraught with
peril. But this is particularly so if we respond to these perils by permanent closure,
drawing an unambiguous boundary between the pure and the impure through the
polarization of conflict, even war. That religious believers are capable of
this, history amply attests. But atheists can as well, once they open
themselves to strong ideals, such as a republic of equals, a world order of
perpetual peace, or communism. We find the same self-assurance of purity
through aggressive attack on “axes of evil”, among believers and atheists alike.
Idolatry breeds violence (A Secular Age (Cambridge, Mass:
Harvard University Press, 2007)
p 769).”
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