Article archive / June 1, 2010
Originally published: . Volume 1, No. 10. Source pages: 2.
We have new leaders taking positions in our community (three new board members, five new directors in the state association), it’s Memorial Day, and Louisiana has a catastrophe coming. I want to connect these three.
In the 80s I had the privilege of working with some top managers who were in that group of men who came home from WWII, started families, and went to work. By the 80s some had achieved top leadership roles. They had the traits of good leaders: effective communication, strong critical-thinking skills, motivation, etc.
But anecdotally I kept seeing something else that set them apart, especially from many of today’s leaders. The WWII group seemed to be more immune than others to the corrupting influence of power. (Power Increases Hypocrisy: Moralizing in Reasoning, Immorality in Behavior. Psychological Science, May, APS.)
I always attributed it (rightly or wrongly) to what it must have been like to sit next to someone in a foxhole, some guy from nowhere special, and then depend on him, and him on you, to live or die. I think that could install equality into one’s heart and mind, and moral system, and help to fight off the seductive, nonconscious tendency we all have toward self- deception, the handmaiden of selfishness.
Time passed, these men retired, more time passed, their protégés retired, and now today, I sometimes feel that we are all searching for someone we can trust. I heard of a poll recently where the majority of voters would rather have a random name out of a phone book than the incumbent.
I hope our new leaders will help the psychological community to be more open, self-correcting, creative and respectful of its own diversity, so we can help Louisiana and ourselves. Because all of us are in this particular foxhole together.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.