The Beast
May 25th, 2004
Dear Friends
Derek Jameson with his garrulous Estuary English used to present a program on international perspectives of English eccentricity called ‘Do they mean us?’ Seeing ourselves as others see us is not always comfortable, but it does offer an opportunity to learn.
This months Harvard Business Review’s lead article describes the strengths, weaknesses and development of so called Alpha Males. (The dominant pack leading primates whose genes we share!) In reading the article I developed a distinct discomfort, recognising some unpalatable descriptors that might inhabit my jeans! Oh Dear, this is embarrassing. I confess and apologise without reservation to any that might just have noticed.
Isn’t it funny how that once you recognise a caricature you begin to see it all over the place! To make life worse having become a recent connoisseur of religious television, it occurs to me that some of the tub thumping, breast beating theatrical performances in the name of religion might misguidedly have antecedents in primate behaviour. This you may dismiss as unkind cynical sacrilege, but hang on – do we not preach about the beast and his image? Is it possible that we see the beast in others and are blind to the beast in ourselves? Is it possible that the troop is attracted by an alpha performance rather than the One who is the Alpha and Omega?
Alpha characters do have advantages: They usually act decisively with good intuition, they have visions beyond the obvious and are prepared to take creative leaps, they are full of energy and have laser focused objectives without emotion. The danger is that they become closed minded, domineering and intimidating. They have the ability to dismiss and demean dissenters, they are impatient in their desire for results which results in communal fracture.
What to do? You would need to read the whole article, but for self development some of the suggestions are close to our spiritual perspectives. They include a requirement that we confess our own vulnerability, that we voluntarily accept and offer accountability and that we connect with our emotions, amongst others.
Ultimately our message is not about taming the image of the Bear, but bearing the image of the One who cares. Thank you again for your contribution to this end. May God give us each the humility to reflect His character , purpose and method.
Yours sincerely
Victor Pilmoor
Treasurer