Charismatic leaders are individuals who seem to inspire others. There are all types of charismatic leaders; some people may deem what they do as evil and others may hold a different opinion. There are some leaders that are seen as saviors, coming along at the right moment when all hope is lost. There are other leaders that people slander their names with the word ‘Murder’. In the end it all depends on which side a follower is on. Jim Jones, Martin Luther King Jr. , and Gandhi were some of the most remember charismatic leaders in history. though very different in what they preach. Then there is the most iconic charismatic leader of all and he goes by many names: Allah, the Almighty, but many know him as Jesus.
In the mid-1970s, Jim Jones, a preacher and the leader of Peoples Temple, craved his way into the hearts of the Fillmore district, San Francisco’s desolated black neighborhood. He moved into the neighborhood at its lowest point. The people were searching for someone to follow, someone to fix their problems and Jones would make sure he was the solution. His personality was one of great charisma and he “…won the hearts and souls of people. And people followed him to hell. That’s where Jim Jones went. That’s where he took the people who followed him.” (Talbot).The people of the Fillmore district were seen as trash by the rest of society and society ignored them. Jones’ vision made even the lowest member of the district feel “special, like something bigger than ourselves” (Talbot). Though Jones was a misfit most of his life, he found peace in taking on a black persona and like the great black leaders that came before him he would lead “his people out of bondage and into the promised land.”(Talbot). However, his council was dom...
... middle of paper ...
....
Jim Jones, Martin Luther King Jr., and Gandhi were each charismatic leaders though they were very different in what they preach. They had a gift to touch people’s hearts and change them. This change may not always be welcomed and some may see it as a test of loyalty. However, whether a person likes it or not, there will be a time when the words of another encourages them to stand up, to change, to fight. True power tends to gather around great leader.
Works Cited
Matthews, David. "Jim Jones' Followers Enthralled by His Skills as a Speaker." CNN. Cable News Network, 13 Nov. 2008. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
McManus, Melanie. "10 Far-out Charismatic Leaders (and the Trouble They Caused)." HowStuffWorks. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
Talbot, David. ""People Followed Him to Hell" The Story of Jim Jones and San Francisco." Alternet. N.p., 30 May 2012. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
James Warren “Jim” Jones was the leader of the Peoples Temple cult and was the orchestrator of Jonestown and the following Mass suicide. Jones was born in Crete Indiana in 1931. Due to the great depression he and his family moved to Lynn and had to live in a shack with no running water or plumbing. As a child Jones was a heavy reader and studied past world leaders and philosophers including Hitler, Marx, and Gandhi. His parents, teachers and peers also noted that he had an intense interest in religion. It is
As Warren Bennis, a scholar on the subject of leadership, once said, “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” This statement certainly holds true no matter what type of leader you look at. From cruel dictators such as Joseph Stalin, who fought and killed to stay in power, to peaceful leaders like Mohandas Gandhi, who used nonviolent tactics to emancipate India from the United Kingdom, to Jesus Christ, who started a religion and spread his message of love and forgiveness far across the globe, they all had a vision of how they wanted to change the world, for the better, or for the worse.
In the case of Mohandus Gandhi, his personal character allowed him to be a great leader. People wanted to be lead by him even though Gandhi held no real political office. At the beginning of his crusade to free India, he made his intentions completely known to the public. Not all people believed in the non-violence that he preached. To change that, Gandhi risked his own life fasting for long periods of time until all fighting and bloodshed stopped. It is selfless acts such as these that rang out to the population. Soon his ideas changed the characters of people around the world. This all could not have been accomplish...
Olsson, P. (2014, February 27). Thirty Years Later: Thoughts About Prevention of Future Jonestowns. Retrieved from http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=31430
Once the Rev. Jim Jones was a popular figure and something of a religious celebrity in San Francisco. He participated in fashionable charity events and perhaps most importantly could turn out the vote or do whatever else was necessary through the well-oiled machine composed largely of his church members.
Mills, Jeannie. Six Years With God: Life Inside Rev. Jim Jones's Peoples Temple. New York: A&W Publishers, 1979.
Jim Jones was “a self-proclaimed messiah in a polyester suit, a man who played God from behind mysterious dark glasses that gave his followers the impression that he was omniscient”( Axthelm 54). Born in 1931 in Lynn, Indiana to James Thurmond and Lynetta Jones, he was looked upon by his parents as a gift from Saint Francis. Jim’s father was white and an active member of the Ku Klux Klan. His mother was part Cherokee which lead Jim in later years to refer to himself with pride as an “ All-American mongrel”
Our world is filled with many successful leaders. The gift of being a leader can be learned; however some individuals have a natural born talent to be a leader. Each leader has his or her own unique leadership style. The gift of being a leader can be learned. Certain individuals are born with a charismatic style and can easily be a leader. A successful leader is one who can inspire and motivate people towards a goal. Martin Luther King Jr. was an individual with a born gift to lead people. The following paper will discuss how Martin Luther King Jr. was able to inspire and motivate people with his effective leadership style.
Jim Jones and his infamous cult entitled, “The People’s Temple,” holds an interesting value to social psychology. Jonestown is a topic that can relate back to many sociology terms and ideas. Jonestown can be related to social deviance, the effect of American culture on social groups, labelling theory, charismatic authority, and even shows how societal history often repeats itself. American society during the late 60’s-70’s is what led to the creation of Jonestown. Jonestowns downfall provided a lot of insight to the American public of how society needed to change, proving that the deaths of about 900 people weren’t for nothing.
On November 18, 1978, a notorious religious organization lead by Jim Jones became international news. As a result of manipulation and isolation, Jim Jones influenced his followers to commit suicide. Not only, but his followers were utterly convinced that what they were doing was for a good cause, specifically, a political movement. With kool-aid and a dash of cyanide, 918 people, adults and children, ended their lives that day. The aftermath of this horrific event resulted in numerous documentaries, on of which being, Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple. Created in 2006, this documentary gives a thorough and accurate account of the events that lead up to as well as occured that day.
As stated in Discourses of Charisma: Barack Obama’s First 6 Months as President of the USA, “charismatic leadership can be divided into ethical and unethical charisma” (Takala, Tanttu, Lamsa, & Virtanan, 2013, p. 155). For the above noted reason, the charismatic leader is heavily reliant on impression management, resourcefulness, and manipulation. When considering methods to garner production and increase performance, then, the charismatic leader seeks domination as a means to complete self-interest for their own purposes. This observation is in stark contrast to the individual consideration exhibited by the transformational leader and the characteristic of servitude from the servant
Throughout history, there have been leaders who are considered as admirable due to positive influences over other individuals. For example, in my opinion, Abraham Lincoln was able to influence the masses of people because he chose to think and behave differently from other leaders before him. When a person is considered as a leader, there are several responsibilities and qualities that will attract others to follow after the teachings that are demonstrated. Leadership can be described as the process for “guiding individuals, groups, and entire organizations in establishing goals and sustaining action to support goals (Shockley-Zalabak, 2015, p. 220). Additionally, each leader will usually have a distinctive
The definition of a leader is a person who influences people to a common purpose. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr are examples of great leaders who brought about social change through alternative means in the 20th century. Their means were through nonviolent protests of freedom. Gandhi fought for freedom from Great Britain, and King fought for freedom from segregation and equal rights for all Americans.
' It raises the bar by appealing to higher ideals and values of followers. Leaders who employ this process model the values themselves and use charismatic methods to attract people to the values and to the leader. Leaders using Burn’s transformational leadership associate with a higher moral position and gives followers something to hope for, a similar moral position. These acts make for a charismatic leader who pushes others to hope for something more. (Nelson & Quick,
Charismatic Power – The ability to influence followers based on the leaders personality. Politicians often use this kind of power to get follower’s to support them.