>>1556574
>ThanQ! The good Dr!
Sermon seemed appropriate for BO's comment last bread. Such an amazing speech.
>>1555591
>What's so special about this anon from last bread?
>>1556325
>MLK, "The Drum Major Instinct" excerpt:
Now very quickly, we would automatically condemn James and John, and we would say they were selfish. Why would they make such a selfish request?
But before we condemn them too quickly, let us look calmly and honestly at ourselves, and we will discover that we too have those same basic desires for recognition, for importance.
That same desire for attention, that same desire to be first.
Of course, the other disciples got mad with James and John, and you could understand why, but we must understand that we have some of the same James and John qualities.
And there is deep down within all of us an instinct. It's a kind of drum major instinct—
a desire to be out front, a desire to lead the parade, a desire to be first. And it is something that runs the whole gamut of life.
And so before we condemn them, let us see that we all have the drum major instinct. We all want to be important, to surpass others, to achieve distinction, to lead the parade.
Alfred Adler, the great psychoanalyst, contends that this is the dominant impulse.
Sigmund Freud used to contend that sex was the dominant impulse, and Adler came with a new argument saying that this quest for recognition, this desire for attention, this desire for distinction is the basic impulse, the basic drive of human life, this drum major instinct.
Now the presence of the drum major instinct is why so many people are “joiners.” You know, there are some people who just join everything. And it’s really a quest for attention and recognition and importance.
And they get names that give them that impression. So you get your groups, and they become the “Grand Patron,” and the little fellow who is henpecked at home needs a chance to be the “Most Worthy of the Most Worthy” of something.
It is the drum major impulse and longing that runs the gamut of human life. And so we see it everywhere, this quest for recognition. And we join things, overjoin really, that we think that we will find that recognition in.
~~~
There comes a time that the drum major instinct can become destructive. And that’s where I want to move now. I want to move to the point of saying that if this instinct is not harnessed, it becomes a very dangerous, pernicious instinct.
For instance, if it isn’t harnessed, it causes one’s personality to become distorted. I guess that’s the most damaging aspect of it: what it does to the personality.
>http://www.beaconbroadside.com/broadside/2018/02/martin-luther-king-jrs-the-drum-major-instinct-sermon-turns-50.html