Greg Krehbiel
Steer clear of the charismatic leader
by Greg Krehbiel on 5 January 2010
Something about my personality or upbringing or general orneriness makes me suspicious of people who seem a little too pleased with themselves. This is especially so when their pleasure touches on certain areas.
A person who is a little too pleased with his ability to paint tulips or kick a football is not nearly as irritating as somebody who’s a little too pleased with his looks, or charm, or personality. (Think Gilderoy Lockhart.)
It’s hard to decide if that’s more or less irritating than the “insufferable know-it-all,” as Snape called Hermione Granger. (Not entirely fairly, in my opinion.)
We might put the arrogant professor type in the same camp. You know, the scientist who looks down his nose at everybody and everything, or the classicist/grammarian who has to correct every quote and edit every sentence.
And then there’s the art nazi. They’re particularly troubling to guys like me who would have a hard time naming more than about 32 colors. (I can usually pick my own tie, but I feel very uncomfortable when my wardrobe falls under the cold appraisal of the ladies in the art department.)
The worst type is probably the person who is a little too pleased with his own piety. This is part of the reason why Fr. Maciel’s quasi-autobiography gave me the heebie-geebies. True piety always seems to make a person realize how rotten he really is. What’s really irritating is when people are a little too pleased with how well they realize how rotten they are. (There’s a way to credit God’s grace for your talents that seems even more proud than just taking the credit yourself.)
Next in line behind the piously self-absorbed might be the politically pious — the person who thinks his policies are so right and self-evident that anybody who disagrees must be stupid and/or evil. Nancy Pelosi strikes me that way at times, and I imagine George Bush gave some people that impression.
I thought of all this today as I read Janice Shaw Crouse’s column, The Inherent Perils of the Charismatic Personality.
If you combine the charismatic leader with the “too pleased with himself” type, you have a very dangerous situation.
You might think I’m hinting at Obama, but I’m not. I find him a little too pleased with himself, but not all that charismatic.
2010-01-05 » Greg Krehbiel
5 January 2010 @ 3:30 pm
I know it’s off-topic, but it turns out the reason women are so much more critical of colors than men is (you guessed it) partly biological.
One of the genes that codes for a color receptor pigment is on the X chromosome. That’s why red-green colorblindness is sex-linked. But it comes in two working forms, as well as the nonfunctional form that causes colorblindness.
Because men have only one X chromosome, and women have an extra one, it is possible for women to have two different functional copies of the receptor.
The two forms have slightly different frequency responses. This means that some women can see colors that other women, and men, can’t see.
As far as Hermione being a know-it-all, one of my criteria for a true know-it-all is that they really don’t know much. Hermione simply knows a lot, studies very hard, and is eager to please the professor.
And as for the broader point, I too resist charismatic leaders. I don’t trust that kind of emotional appeal.
6 January 2010 @ 7:30 am
It’s always good to remember that Warren G. Harding was elected largely on the strength of his public presence.
6 January 2010 @ 9:08 am
Conceit is ugly. God help us.
18 February 2010 @ 12:12 pm
[...] But … when you have a charismatic leader you create lots of problems. (See Steer clear of the charismatic leader.) [...]