Love in the Mirror-Weekly Journal 10-Ideas in Antiquity

Believing in one self is an extremely important idea for becoming a leader and maintaining status as one. At the same time outwardly portraying this self belief can often cross over to narcissism if this portrayal becomes overpowering. Even though the line may be blurred for many people, once a leader would rather put their personal image and preference over the good of the people being led this self confidence has become destructive. There are always signs leading up to this critical point that others may actively ignore such as smaller selfish actions, immortality and lack of urgency with important matters. Successful individuals typically have to maintain a certain threshold of narcism as they need to uphold their appearance when interacting with others and forming first impressions. In society today it has become increasingly harder to determine who is narcissistic out of necessity and who actually has the potential to be destructive in their self love.

Thursday 4/5–1.5 hours 8:00–9:30 a.m. (Class)

Today in class we continued our conversation about portraiture and portrayal of leaders in ancient contexts. As a class we examined a variety of photos and representations of living beings then discussed whether the picture portrayed was an actual portrait. One of the major arguments about a picture of a living being actually being a portrait or not is that it is commonly accepted that the subject should actually be cognizant of the fact that they’re being portrayed. This is the reason why it is said that animals can’t have portraits but while discussing this in class I thought about how candid pictures of individuals can often be more telling than some portraits. I spoke about how someone can reasonably be anyone else that they want if they portray themself in the right way and in the right setting. A candid picture takes this factor away and can offer more of an individual’s natural expression as they are on a daily mundane basis. Returning back to the idea of portraiture with animals, many animals can be extremely expressive and therefore telling of their personality. This is most often seen with pets who learn to emulate the humans around them. The point that I’m alluding to is that portraiture with animals should be rethought on the basis that portraiture is supposed to portray the subject’s emotions and inner thoughts in that moment.

I still accept that animals can’t have portraits because they don’t know that they are being photographed. When someone crafts a portrait today, they know what qualities and side of them self that they wsh to portray then craft the portrait around that. The examples given in class and even from the module all had stories behind them that, when put in context, all build up on the subject to an even greater degree outside of just purely the photo.

Throughout our discussion we got to talking about the concept of gravitas, the ability to walk in a room and instantly have authority. This came up as we discussed how the Roman empire did not have a police force so when riots or mass panic broke out there was no force there to help ease the citizens individually. In these situations a prominent leader would stand up in front of the crowd and simply call for them to relax. Since the leader was so respected and revered the crowd would immediately listen and relax. I feel that today we don’t have leaders with this same level of gravitas. There are leaders who may have this on a small scale but don’t have the power to reach an entire city.

Friday 4/6–3 hours-8:00–11:00 a.m.

For this week’s module we examine narcism in leadership through an ancient lens by reviewing the story of Narcissus. In this tale, an extremely handsome young man ends up falling in love with himself when he sees his reflection in a body of water. The story is well known but there are a variety of other tangential and minute facts to the story that are nearly equally as important. Within this story there is also the legend of the nymph Echo. Echo would speak regularly with the queen of the gods, Juno, in depth about nearly anything and distracted her from the events around her. One of those events was that Juno’s husband Jove was sneaking down off the mountain of the gods to have affairs with the nymphs. Juno became enraged when she realized this and damned Echo to only repeat after others when Echo spoke. Later in the story, Echo actually crosses paths with Narcissus and seized by his beauty attempts to get his attention. She hides and repeats back what he says as he calls out confused as to who is watching and speaking to him. Echo then runs towards him and embraces him as she misinterprets something he say in confusion. Narcissus pushes her off then screams out that he’d rather die than let her embrace him. Echo, deathly embarrassed, decides that she will never let anyone see her again ad will only cal out from far away, dark places and in the depths of caves. It’s interesting to think about how Narcissus was so full of himself and obnoxious that he hurt this nymph’s feelings bad enough for her to never want to be seen again.

While reading the story an important part that stuck with me was the prophecy from Tiresias. When Narcissus’ mother asked Tiresias if her son would live to see a ripe age she was given the following prophecy, “If he but fail to recognize himself a long life he may have, beneath the sun.” Being that most people reading this tale already know how this ends, this prophecy is meant to be told with tragic irony. I thought more deeply into the prophecy and what it may mean if said to someone today or under different circumstances from Narcissus. I thought back to the concept of metal activation that many mentors may bestow upon their mentees and how this in a sense was leading individuals to see themselves for their full potential. To align with the prophecy there are also times where an individual may have a mental activation or self realization then begin to head down a self destructive path. What if in the prophecy recognizing yourself means actually understanding your destructive potential and the allure that it has. In these myths I have always found it weird that the individuals are always led down a path to do the right thing and if one of the characters are a villain they had a certain set of events or circumstances that led them there. I would be extremely interested in the opposite in which someone is led down the path of self destruction or immorality and runs into a hero who just so happened to be an exemplary person through circumstance. Even in real life, some peopple just wake up one day or have a moment of mental activation that leads them down the wrong path. An individual can easily recognize them self as an exceptionally bad person and embrace this feeling for how it will benefit them in the short run.

Tuesday 4/10–1.5 hours 8:00–9:30 a.m. (Class)

In class we examined the extra credit portraits that we submitted and discussed the leadeship qualities and different aspects of portraiture within each. We looked at three pictures and discussed the intent of the imagery found within them. The most that I got out of this conversation is that having conflicting imagery can often enhance the actual subject perception or emotions. In my leadership portrait there was a overall dark tone with the picture itself and my face being dimly lit then theres the bright lights of the NYC skyline in the background. When I was choosing this picture I felt that the suit I was wearing mixed with the dark tones of the picture were very contradictory. The suit and my facial expression allude to someone about to give a speech or thinking about a certain path of leadership. The dark tones and contrasting light in the background morphed my physical tone to have a much darker connotation. Putting all of these factors together made it look as if I were about to lead a group to do something illegal or seedy late at night. All three pictures that we looked at in class had contradicting attributes that shifted the tone of the entire portrait.

We then began discussing this week’s module, specifically looking at Narcissus for his leadership qualities. As a class we determined that leaders must be able to call a meeting, build a team, speak publicly, adequately influence and finally set goals. Narcissus would be a great public speaker and influencer due to his attractiveness but the other attributes would set him up for failure as a leader. Narcissus doesn’t approve of talking to unattractive people, as seen by how he treated Echo, so it would be very hard for him to call a meeting or build a team. At the same time Narcissus seems so self absorbed that he wouldn’t be able to focus outwardly long enough for him to adequately set goals as a leader. While discussing this I found it ironic that most social leaders, uphold their legitimacy by constantly crafting their physical appearance and influence. I look at many of the leaders that influence pop culture and social circles today and I realized that many of them don’t outwardly showcase their team building or goal setting skills but are idolized for their persuasion, what they say publicly and the people that their ability to call on others. Even when celebrities do show their abilities to perform these other tasks they are praised for it or seen as especially witty in their ability to successfully form a plan instead of floating around and looking attractive alongside other leaders. I believe that this is a deeper question about how the average American defines their leaders and if this exclusive to our country and culture?