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Great Man Theory states that men with outsize power can have outsize impacts on society and history. Does this theory have legs – or is it all illusion?
Early this year, Science Daily (a website I like) claimed a new study on spiders 'debunked' the "19th-century notion that highly influential individuals use their power" to shape history. This theory these spiders had debunked was Great Man Theory.
Contents
I'd heard of Great Man Theory a few times over the years. I never gave it much thought. However the Science Daily article piqued my interest. If there is one thing the media has taught me (and the media has taught me many things), it is that the word 'debunked' usually signals something is, by contrast, actually worth looking into.
If you want a common man to dismiss something as obviously wrong, just tell him it's been debunked. Then he will know - devote thought to this, and your membership in the world of good thinkers is gravely imperiled. Abandon these lines of inquiry now... lest you be tossed into the 'gullible idiots box' and excluded forever from the society of the educated and informed.
Of course, if you are a contrarian - as I am - these veiled warnings that a thing is intellectually off limits only interest you in it more. They make you want to investigate a thing. To learn all about it, as well as its counterclaims.
This new interest in Great Man Theory led me down a rabbit hole that, in only a short time, changed my thinking on a profound, important topic that affects the way a man views his place in the world.
Comments
Let me say first I don't at
Let me say first I don't at all disagree that great men exist and have left indelible fingerprints all through human history. However to attribute the direction of history itself to the whims and actions of those great men is a stretch. Spencer is right - it takes a certain kind of environment to bring out a certain kind of greatness. It's not that great men represent the will of the society or the people. They are instruments of larger geopolitical and historical forces. An American-Japanese conflict was inevitable at the time by the nature of geopolitical reality. Whether the American people wanted a part in that or not is not really relevant. At the risk of sounding mystical, a great part of the force driving history seems to be some kind of Providence, as Tolstoy put it. True to that, wherever human beings have made their home, history inevitably seems to follow certain unmistakable patterns. Again, I'm not claiming that all societies and cultures have developed the same way or at the same rate. But the overall pattern looks very familiar from one to the other.
chess
Let me skip the formalities and add:
It's like chess. Hard rules and soft rules. The moment you have invested your existence into becoming a master, soft rules get to feel quite hard. The important part is to meditate intermediately and integrate the new information, while being open to change course. At times there will surface plot-twists to a worthwhile life, like they are scripted in a worthwhile film.
Unique
Chase, this was a unique, fascinating and well-informed piece of writing. I enjoyed it until the last word.
On greatness: I believe boldness, risk-taking, and huge balls to silence the external and internal noise of doubt and disbelief are integral part of what makes a man great or at least symptoms of potential greatness.
I see that you have changed
I see that you have changed your views completely! In one of your articles that I read not long ago, you said that any military commander could have achieved what Alexander the Great did, and probably gone further than India
Great
Great article Chase. You’re the first mentor/role model I ever had. I’ll make you proud.
Surely the people who disbelieve the great man theory are those who themselves will never have a significant impact on the world, and they cannot believe others can, so they want to believe that each individual person is insignificant and weak, and only the collective matters. Discontent in their own individuality.
Is there any way to download every one of GirlsChase’s articles from 2015 and before, Great Man Chase? I will pay. I want to keep them in case GirlsChase ever somehow goes offline.
The Real SZ
Lol I have an impostor now? I feel flattered.
I hope you can tell by emails, or something chase on who's who because anyone can just take someone's username and say whatever.
Massive Tinder Date (Gone wrong)
There is this viral video about a girl named "Natasha Aponte" who did a massive tinder dafd on New York (I guess) where she dupe thousands of men...watch the video on YouTube ...And can you make an article about it? What going on her mind? Whats going to the man's who stayed through the whole thing? Thanks!
Hard to tell
Hello Chase,
could spice it with a little challenge, but I guess clean and clear is best, have a vacation in the Land of pattern recognizers.
You never know. Maybe your wife is 1:10 000 here. And maybe we will have anal jokes on the wedding. :-)
Cheers
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