A few more clippings from “Dreams Die Hard” by the late David Harris. There are two lovely pen portrait about Bob Moses, and his thoughts on leadership – I will come to those another time. For now, by way of contrast, here’s some various stuff about Allard Lowenstein, who clearly needed to be the “key” person in any give situation (I’ve not included his failed efforts with People’s Park). Trigger warnings for descriptions of manipulation, I guess…
Allard’s belief in Allard was unswerving. It was the strength that underlay his impact and the weakness that undercut most of his victories as well. After his assassination, Lowenstein would be described as both the most “selfless” and “self-serving” of men – and both adjectives were, at times, deserved.
(Harris, 1982:21)
and
Among his critics, one of the things that was always said of Lowenstein was that he shared centre stage either poorly or not at all. “Allard had two kinds of people in his life, “ said one man who knew him for 20 years. “There were his idols… and his followers….. In his own head, he had no peers…. He treated you as an equal until you then indeed became an equal, then he treated you as an underling or banished you to Siberia, froze you out. Public recognition was the key.”
(Harris, 1982: 217)
and
Another veteran of that primary recalled what they called the “wonder kid” phenomenon:
2It was just this thing that Allard did over and over, it seemed like once a week almost. He would be out in one of the local offices, say in Massapequa, and would find some young guy stapling leaflets or something and Allard would discover him. I mean he would say things like “”How could someone with your talent be stapling leaflets?” and immediately he pulled him off that job and put him to work driving him around. In that spot, Allard was pretty overwhelming for some 19 -or 20- [page break] year-old guy. They got to be privy to Al’s meetings with big-time politicians, see all his influence up close. Inevitably at some point, when the wonder kid’s worship of Allard was at its peak, he would be given some hopelessly difficult task to do like “Go see politician X and get me on the delegate list” or “Z and Y are telling incredible lies about me. Go find them and put a stop to it.” The tasks were always beyond what the wonder kids could do, and so inevitably they failed and had to come back and report their inadequacy to Allard. They always felt terrible. That was followed by rejection. Allard was upset – not angry, ust disappointed. Usually the wonder kind would be assigned to do something besides drive Allard for a while. Then, usually after a few days, he would forgive him and accept him back. I mean, from the wonder kid’s point of view, the debt you owe that kind of “understanding” and “generosity” is immeasurable. “Hooked is a mild word for the effect. It was a pattern of control that was beyond belief.”
(Harris, 1982:240-241)
and
Intensity is never a simple proposition, and In Lowenstein’s case, trying to untangle its roots only leads further into contradiction. He was generous and caring to a fault, yet found it difficult to sustain an interest in conversations he did not dominate. He had absolute faith in the superiority of his own judgment, but made everyone else’s case better than he made his own. He cared nothing for titles, yet spent a great portion of his remaining life pursuing them. He was a genuinely selfless server of causes, but he arranged his life so 95 percent of the situations he encountered centred on his own presence.
(Harris, 1982:292)
We all have ego-needs. We all have ways we need to be part of groups. The trick is to make sure that you’re not turning other people into ego-fodder, using them as “things”. Lowenstein seems not to have fully grokked that, or – if he grokked it – to re-arrange his habits of working in ways that overcame his tendencies.
On the “love-bombing” thing – yeah, that’s just so insidious and destructive. Yikes.
There, that’s all I’ve got.
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