Author: Lindsey Frank

“Digital Dystopias” was a speaking by Yasha Levin about the internet. He started the speaking by showing a video about the internet from when it first became a thing and how they displayed it as a wonderful, happy thing. However, people now are afraid of the internet especially in politics as it is believed that the internet has been turned into a weapon.

I liked this speaking because it provided quick history of how the internet came to be and how peoples views of it developed as the internet did.

Leave a Comment

“Pure Confidence” is a play that I went to most recently and took place at a time where slavery was prevalent. The play mainly revolved around the main character Simon, who is a horse racing jockey that is hired to race for money for his owner. As the play continues, Simon is able to become free from being a slave.

I think that this play intertwined well with this class as it displayed domination and subordination. Simon was a subordinate to his dominant owner. Despite his determined and intelligent persona, Simon was unable to free himself from slavery on his own. Labeling him a subordinate. Overall, I enjoyed watching this play and seeing its relations to readings in class.

Leave a Comment

Appropriate was a play I was able to see earlier this fall and I found it very interesting. It is about a family uncovering the past of their deceased father while visiting their old childhood home. After finding a disturbing photo album, they find out that their father was an advocate for the Klu Klux Klan.

This play was filled with a lot of hatred and anger towards each of the characters as well as the deceased father. I think that it was interesting to see who stayed loyal to their father based off of the type of relationship that they had as children. One character defended and denied her father and tried to convince others that there was no possibility of the photo album being his. However, the other two characters were appalled at the fact that their father would support such a terrible thing. But that just goes to show how each character got along with their father.

Leave a Comment

An in group is a group that you strongly identify with while an outgroup on the other hand, is a group in which you do not. I found it interesting how specific the dichotomy is between groups that creates the “us and them” as stated on page 142. Small cultural differences like the way they dress, what they eat, or even hobbies can create different ingroups. Is it possible for an individual to be a part of multiple ingroups if their characteristics fit into the basis of those ingroups?

It is interesting how intergroup boundaries are also specific. For example, the way cultures view each others eating habits and how they use utensils creates an intergroup boundary. Another boundary I found interesting is for example, when Americans who know Japanese try to converse with Japanese in their language to make them feel more comfortable when in reality, it is intolerable. Overall, I think that this article dives into many examples of ingroups and classifications within ingroups that were interesting but also contains a lot of information that makes it difficult to digest.

2 Comments

In the article Would Women Lead Differently, it says “women’s leadership has been linked with enhancing world peace, reducing corruption, and improving opportunities for the downtrodden”(Schein 162). This quote relates to the women’s fight for equality within the other readings and how women nationwide came together to solve inequality in order to dissolve the inferiority in comparison to black men. Oftentimes, we see women lead social movements and protests against or supporting various topics that are of great social and political importance.

I liked how the article Ways Women Lead dove into the idea that women utilize different strength’s within themselves in order to be successful as leaders instead of dissecting and mimicking the methods of male leadership. Having a different style of leadership implements a fresh perspective and can create an impact on the amount of success a group can have. I found it interesting when the article described the male form of leadership as transactional and the woman form as transformational. Which makes sense when you think about marches led by women and how it boosts the morale of the group as a whole as well as allowing members to feel like they have power to make a substantial impact in what they believe in.

3 Comments

Kelley’s article explains and elaborates on the thought that “we tend to lose sight of the people these leaders will lead”. The article does a good job on highlighting the importance of followers and how vital they are to a groups success.

Something that stuck out to me in the article is that essentially, everyone is a follower unless they have achieved a leadership position like a CEO. In many cases, one might be a leader of a certain group. However, they serve as a follower to another group. Many people strive to climb the corporate ladder, but wouldn’t that be toxic towards the groups success. If someone is focused on how to create greater success for themselves, rather than focusing on the group task at hand, wouldn’t that create negative side effects to productivity?

Another point that was interesting was that “self-confident followers see colleagues as allies and leaders as equals”. After reading this, it also made me question why the follower doesn’t desire a leadership role if they view themselves as equals. Or rather that the follower uses this tactic for self-confidence in order to be more successful as a follower for the group which is also practical.

5 Comments

I found this podcast very intriguing as it dives into Jonestown and Jim Jones as a leader. Something that was interesting was that Jones was actually a good person and encouraged his followers to act on racial inequality. Learning about what Jones did before The People’s Temple spiraled out of control was something that made this podcast engaging. Hearing how people joined his church for what Jones was preaching and his methods, and not the religion itself speaks to Jones’ effective charismatic leadership and how he utilized it in order to gain followers.

It’s also interesting how Jonestown took a turn and became a very negative thing. It was sad that Jones used his charisma and large following selfishly rather than continuing to benefit the community like he did at the start. Overall, hearing about how Jonestown unfolded in this podcast was very interesting.

5 Comments

In this article, it discusses the idea of “groupthink” and how it can effect a group in various ways. The author says, “I use the term groupthink as a quick and easy way to refer to the mode of thinking that persons engage in when concurrence-seeking becomes so dominant in a cohesive ingroup that it tends to override realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action”(Janis 361). Janis describes groupthink as a form of communication within a group that distracts the group from concise thoughts and rather focuses on agreement between members.

I found it interesting and agree how groupthink is seen negatively. In the article, it states how symptoms emerge when purposefully avoid being too critical on their group-mates ideas. This can be extremely inefficient within a group because no progress could be made if other people in the group do not share their personal ideas despite going against others views. Rather than having meaningful conversation and debate, groupthink substitutes this for the search for concurrence before moving on to the next issue.

5 Comments

When reading the article “What is Transactional Leadership? How Structure Leads to Results”, the opening paragraph cleared my confusion between the two by saying that transactional leadership is used by someone who likes structure and order. In contrast, transformational leadership is used by someone who wants to inspire others. The difference is that transactional leaders look to direct others and transformational leaders want to motivate others to create growth.

Later in the article, it incorporates charismatic leadership and how that differs from transactional leadership as well. Charismatic leadership puts emphasis on influencing a group to work towards something that will make the world a better place. The article says “in transactional leadership, the emphasis is on managing the performance of the individual and determining how well he or she performs in a structured environment”. Therefore, charismatic leadership differentiates from transactional leadership because transactional is individualized and charismatic is more group progress focused.

5 Comments

After reading Greenleaf’s article, I believe that a servant as a leader will be a better leader in comparison to someone who inherited the leadership position. Servant leaders will be more likely to feel comfortable in a leadership role due to their natural ability instead of someone who has been put in that position and expected to lead a certain way.

I see this relate to our class discussion regarding humility and how it is vital to have that as a trait in leadership. I think that servants who rise as leaders naturally and unexpectedly are humble. In other words, these servant leaders aren’t forcing their ideas on anyone to achieve a certain role, but rather sharing ideas organically because it’s a part of their nature.

5 Comments

Within this article, Machiavelli elaborated on the idea that fear should be instilled in the people in order for new ideologies to be introduced. He says how people have been accustomed to their own ways therefore creating resistance for new power. However, once that new power is established, the reign won’t last before citizens begin to resist in order to return to what it was before.

He goes on to explain how leaders like Moses, Cyrus, and Romulus have traits and actions that helped to create their success as leaders. He states, “and if their particular actions and methods are examined they will not appear very different”(104). Meaning that when you analyze their actions and traits, that these leaders are very similar. I found this interesting when relating it to our class discussion regarding charismatic leadership because of what makes a leader charismatic and how individuals share traits and actions that make them successful. In addition, i thought it was important how he added that opportunities presented themselves and these leaders ceased them in order to fulfill their goals for the people. In order for those traits to emerge, opportunities must surface to enable these leaders to take action.

6 Comments

This podcast was very interesting as it started out talking about history in general and how we choose to only highlight certain pieces of history. When intertwining this with the Great Man Theory, people worthy of being recorded mostly had military prowess, and intelligence which is a deciding factor when selecting what should be recorded. This was interesting to hear because it shows how the history recorded was just a small piece of what actually happened. Within the recorded history, most of the people behind it were male and held positions of high power.

The podcast continues to say how women received no credit for work that they did and were only there to have children. I thought it was interesting when they introduced “herstory” and how one of the girls in the podcast writes about one woman in history every month. It’s another example of how people today are shining light on important women in history who had made an impact. overall, this podcast was intriguing to listen to and learn from with the idea of the Great Man Theory.

6 Comments

I think that what we have been discussing recently in class involving tyrannicide and toxic charismatic leadership correlates well with Richard III. In the film, we can see how an individual can go to extremes to arrive at power. In this case, Richard goes to the extent of many murders in order to gain the power he desires. Throughout the movie, we see a display of toxic charisma by Richard as he manipulates those around him in order to justify the killings of his own family members, members of Queen Elizabeth’s family, and Queen Margaret’s family. With these unethical actions, I can conclude that Richard could be considered a tyrant due to the fact that he is doing all of this for his own personal gain.

Something that was really interesting to me were the parallels drawn in Dr. Bezio’s “Crooked Politics” between Richard and President Trump. In each scene, Dr.Bezio is able to connect a part of the film with an involvement with Trump. For example, a community of women band together to try to prevent Richard from reaching the thrown. Similarly, women began to come forward and blame Trump of sexual assault. Furthermore, it is also astonishing how the events in the movie line up with the events in Trump’s path to presidency chronologically. Overall, the connections between “Crooked Politics” and Richard III were very fascinating and they furthered my understanding of what a tyrant can be considered.

 

5 Comments

When it comes to leaders, Martin Luther King is one that is extremely popular and well-known. In the article by Bill George, he asks this question about leadership: “how do you teach it?”. In class, we often question how one becomes a leader and tie it in with the statistic that you are born with one third and make two thirds, as noted from the charisma readings. Leadership qualities can surface when the opportunity presents itself and George hints towards that within the article. “It was a role he neither sought nor was prepared for…”(George 1). With this, he is emphasizing that King wasn’t voluntarily advocating for himself to lead protests but clearly displayed charisma as he was chosen. Leaders rise to the occasion and accept challenges when opportunities present themselves.

While MLK was a profound charismatic leader, he also displayed tendencies that weren’t charismatic. “He was at times reluctant to take on the responsibilities suddenly and unexpectedly thrust upon him”(Carson 29). Though he often presented confidence, there were times in which MLK was instinctually nervous and/or fearful when in potential danger. this shows that many great leaders can display charismatic traits. However, leaders can have moments of unsureness and still remain strong as well as maintain their status as a leader.

2 Comments

Hero- Mr. Incredible

Leader- George Washington

Role Model- Serena Williams

Leave a Comment