Leadership Dbq

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Leadership can be considered a battle between selfishness and selflessness. Many people believe that being a leader is all about the title or being successful, but in reality, the real leaders are the people who are selfless or more concerned with the aspirations of others rather than themselves. For some, the thoughts of being a leader can evoke feelings like fear, uneasiness, and apprehension because of the potential to fail or be unliked by the population. These feelings could either be developed or hindered depending on the type of leadership the individual decides to lead with, authoritative or collaborative. An authoritative leader executes their ideas using a strong hand, creating a totalitarian society similar to dictators like …show more content…
The central theme of Plato’s The Republic (excerpt) is that leaders need to have the minds of philosophers, and philosophers the minds of leaders. “Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy... cities will never have rest from their evils” (Source C). The quote above provokes that the people will never be at ease if a leader does not take some qualities from a philosopher, and vice versa. With the knowledge of a philosopher, the leader will therefore be more successful, well-rounded, and powerful. Napoleon Bonaparte, a French military commander, had led many successful battles during the French Revolution. His success rate slowly diminished after the battles, leaving him with a nation in exile. David’s painting, Napoleon Crossing the Alps, is one of the most famous pieces of art displaying Napoleon as a leader. The painting shows composed Napoleon riding a horse in the middle of his army using his hand to point in the direction that they should follow. It is evident that Napoleon is a leader as he is wearing a gold cape which is billowing in the wind -- which represents prosperity, success, wealth, and courage -- along with an official bicorn hat (Source F). One can infer that this is a collaborative leadership since Napoleon is among his men, exposing how he is one with …show more content…
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, nobleman Macbeth seems to take matters into his own hands as ambition to be the best leader gets to him. Many parts of the play can be viewed as Macbeth wanting everything the best for himself, rather than taking the potential fears and situations into consideration. In lines 32-35 in Act I, Scene VII, Macbeth states “I have bought golden opinions from all sorts of people, which would be worn now in their newest gloss, not cast aside so soon” (Source A). This quote appears when Macbeth is contemplating the murder of King Duncan, whether he should be selfish or selfless. Macbeth’s quote is saying that he has won over the good opinions of the townsfolk, but doesn’t want to throw away all these good intentions too soon. He would rather be liked than take the initiative in doing what his people would want. Macbeth can be seen as an authoritative leader in this situation as he has no care in the world about what his people think and only about what he is thought of as, not Scotland as a whole. Similarly, Machiavelli’s excerpt from The Prince portrays different ideas on whether it is safer to be feared or loved as a ruler, something that Macbeth struggles with. In short, Machiavelli illustrates that a leader who is too liked or feared by society will lack in the ability to execute their own ideas rather than group ideas. If a leader is too friendly, the people will