Leaders have a significant role in creating that state of mind in their environment. They can serve as symbols of moral unity of the community. They can express values that hold the society together. Most important, they can conceive and articulate goals that lift people out of their petty preoccupations, carry them out of the conflicts that tear a school apart, and unite them in pursuit of objectives worthy of their best efforts. To know what to do is wisdom. To know how to do it is skill. To know when to do it is judgment. To strive to do it best is dedication. To do it for the benefit of others is compassion. To do it quietly is humility. To get the job done is achievement. To get other to do all of the above is leadership. In general, norms regarding social identity pertain to the kinds of role repertories or profiles we feel it permissible for any given individual to sustain—“social personality.” We do not expect a pool shark to be either a woman or classical scholar, but we are not surprised or embarrassed by the fact that one is also a working-class Italian or an urban youth. Norms regarding personal identity, however, pertain not to ranges of permissible combinations of social attributes but rather to the kind of information control the individual can appropriately exert. For the individual to have what is called a shady past is an issue regarding one’s social identity; the way one handles information about this past is a question of personal identification. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20
Possession of a strange past (not strange in itself, of course, but strange for someone of the individual’s current social identity) is one kind of impropriety; for the possessor to live out a life before those who are ignorant of this past and not informed about it by one can be a very different kind of impropriety, the first having to do with our rules regarding social identity, the second with those regarding personal identity. Apparently in middle class circles today, the more there is about the individual that deviates in an undesirable direction from what might have been expected to be true of one, the more one is obliged to volunteer information about oneself, even though the cost to one f candor may have increased proportionately. (On the other hand, he concealment by one individual of something one should have revealed about oneself does not give us the right to ask one the kind of question that will force one to disclose the facts or tell a knowing lie. When we do not ask such a question a double embarrassment results, ours for being tactless, one’s for what one has concealed. One can also feel badly about having put us in a position to feel guilty about embarrassing one.) Here, the right to reticence seems earned only by having nothing to hide. For a sharp contrast, compare the code in the Old West, where apparently one’s past and one’s original name were defined as rightful private property. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20
It also seems that in order to handle one’s personal identity it will be necessary for the individual to know to whom one owes much information and to whom one owes very little—even though in all cases one may be obliged to refrain from telling an “outright” lie. By implication it will also be necessary for one to have a “memory,” that is, in this case, an accurate and ready accounting in one’s own mind regarding the facts of one’s present and past which one might owe to others. The bearing of personal identification and social identification upon each other must now be considered, and an attempt made to unravel some of the more apparent intertwinings. It is plain that in constructing a personal identification of an individual we make use of aspects of one’s social identity—along with everything else that can be associated with one. It is also plain that being able to identify an individual personally gives us a memory device for organizing and consolidating information regarding one’s social identity—a process which may subtly alter the meaning of the social characteristics we impute to one. When the persons to whom the individual has not yet revealed oneself are not strangers to one but friends, it can be assumed that the possession of a discreditable secret failing takes on a deeper meaning. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20
Discovery prejudices not only the current social situation, but established relationships as well; not only the current image others present have of him, but also the one they will have in the future; not only appearances, but also reputation. The stigma and the effort to conceal it or remedy it become “fixed” as part of personal identity. Hence our increased willingness to chance improper behaviour when wearing a mask, or when away from home; hence the willingness of some to publish revelatory material anonymously, or to make a public appearance before a small private audience, the assumption being that the disclosure will not be connected to them personally by he public at large. An instructive example of the latter has recently been reported regarding the Mattachine Society, an organization devoted to presenting an improving the situation of homosexuals, as part of which the Society publishes a journal. Apparently a branch office in a commercial building can be busy with public-oriented efforts, while the officers otherwise conduct themselves so that other tenants in the building remain unaware of what is being undertaken and by whom. An audience is able to orient itself in a situation by accepting performed cues on faith, treating these signs as evidence of something greater than or different from the sign-vehicles themselves. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20
If this tendency of the audience to accept signs places the performer in a position to be misunderstood and makes it necessary for one to exercise expressive care regarding everything one does when before the audience, so also this sign-accepting tendency puts the audience in a position to be duped and misled, for there are few signs that cannot be used to attest to the presence of something that is not really there. And it is plain that many performers have ample capacity and motive to misrepresent the facts; only shame, guilt, or fear prevent them from doing so. As members of an audience it is natural for us to feel that the impression the performer seeks to give may be true or false, genuine or spurious, valid or “phony.” So common is this doubt that, as suggested we often give special attention to features of the performance that cannot be readily manipulated, this enabling ourselves to judge the reliability of the more misrepresentable cues in the performance. (Scientific police work and projective testing are extreme examples of the application of this tendency.) And if we grudgingly allow certain symbols of status to establish a performer’s right to a given treatment, we are always ready to pounce on a minor or very detrimental flaw or weakness in one’s symbolic armour in order to discredit one’s pretensions. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20
When we think of those who present a false front or “only” a front, of those who dissemble, deceive, and defraud, we think of a discrepancy between fostered appearances and reality. We also think of the precarious position in which these performers place themselves, for at any moment in their performance an event may occur to catch them out and baldly contradict what they have openly avowed, bringing them immediate humiliation and sometimes permanent loss of reputation. We often feel that it is just these terrible eventualities, which arise from being caught out flagrate delicto in a patent act of misrepresentation, that an honest performer is able to avoid. This common-sense view has limited analytical utility. Sometimes when we ask whether a fostered impression is true or false we really mean to ask whether or not the performer is authorized to give the performance in question, and are not primarily concerned with the actual performance itself. When we discover that someone with whom we have dealings is an imposter and out-and-out fraud, we are discovering that one did not have the right to play the part one played, that one was not accredited incumbent of the relevant status. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20
We assume that the impostor’s performance, in addition to the fact that it misrepresents one, will be at fault in other ways, but often one’s masquerade is discovered before we can detect any other difference between the false performance and the legitimate one which it simulates. Paradoxically, the more closely the imposter’s performance approximates to the real thing, the more intensely we may be threatened, for a competent performance by someone who proves to be an impostor may weaken in our minds the moral connection between legitimate authorization to play a part and the capacity to play it. (Skilled mimics, who admit all along that their intentions are unserious, seem to provide one way in which we can “work through” some of these anxieties.) The social definition of impersonation, however, is no itself a very consistent thing. For example, while it is felt to be an inexcusable crime against communication to impersonate someone of sacred status, such as a doctor, law enforcement, civil engineer, diplomat, royalty, religious leader, professor, or celebrity, for instance. However, we are often less concerned when someone impersonates a member of a disesteemed, non-crucial, profane status, such as that of a person without a home, a disabled individual, or an unskilled worker, but even that is changing because people are getting money, benefits, and jobs that others need and want. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20
When a disclose shows that we have been participating with a performer who has a higher status than one led us to believe, there is a good Christian precedent for our reacting with wonderment and chagrin rather than with hostility. Mythology and our popular magazines, in fact, are full of romantic stories in which the villain and the hero both make fraudulent claims that are discredited in the last chapter, the villain proving not to have a high status, the hero proving not to have a low one. Further, while we may take a harsh view of performers such as confidence men who knowingly misrepresent every fact about their lives, we may have some sympathy for those who have but one fatal flaw and who attempt to conceal the fact that they are, for example, a personal with physical limitations, deflowered, or racially impure, instead of admitting their fault and making an honourable attempt to live it down. However, some of these perceived flaws are now accepted as normal in states like California, New York, Florida, Texas and Tennessee. Also, we distinguish between impersonation of a specific, concrete individual, which we usually feel is quite inexcusable, and impersonation of category membership, which we may feel less strongly about. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20
So, too, we often feel differently about those who misrepresent themselves to forward what they feel are the just claims of a collectivity, or those who misrepresent themselves accidentally or for a lark, than about those who misrepresent themselves for private psychological or material gain. Finally, since there are senses in which the concept of “a status” is not clear-cut, so there are senses in which the concept of impersonation is not clear either. For example, there are many statuses in which membership obviously is not subject to formal ratification. Claims to be a law graduate can be established as valid or invalid, but claims to be a friend, a true believer, or a music-lover can be confirmed or disconfirmed only more or less. Where standards of competence are not objective, and where bona fide practitioners are not collectively organized to protect their mandate, an individual may style oneself an expert and be penalized by nothing stronger than neighs. All of these sources of confusion are instructively illustrated in the variable attitude we have toward the handling of age and sexual status. It is a culpable thing for a fifteen-year-old boy who drives a BMW 5 Series Ultimate Driving Machine or drinks in a tavern to represent himself as being eighteen, but there are many social contexts in which it would be improper for a woman not to misrepresent herself as being more youthful and sexually attractive than is really the case. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20
When we say a particular woman is not really as well-formed as she appears to be and that the same woman is not really a physician although she appears to be, we are using different conceptions of the term “really.” Further, modification of one’s personal front that are considered misrepresentative one year may be considered merely decorative a few years later, and this dissensus may be found at any one time between one subgroup in our society and others. For example, very recently the concealment of gray hair by dyeing has come to be considered acceptable, although there still are sectors of the populace which consider this to be impermissible. It is felt to be all right for immigrants to impersonate native Americans in dress and in patterns of decorum but it is still a doubtful matter to Americanize one’s name or one’s nose. The passage from the state of nature to the civil state produces a very remarkable change in humans, by substituting justice for instinct in one’s conduct, and giving one’s actions the morality they had formerly lacked. Then only, when the voice of duty takes the place of physical impulses and right of appetite, do humans, who so far had considered only oneself, find that one is forced to act on different principles, and to consult one’s reason before listening to one’s inclinations. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20
Although, in this state, one deprives oneself of some advantages which one got from nature, one gains in return others so great, one’s faculties are so stimulated and developed, one’s ideas so extended, one’s feelings so ennobled, and one’s whole soul so uplifted, that, did not the abuses of this new condition often degrade one below that which one left, one would be bound to bless continually the happy moment which took one from that which one left, one would be bound to bless continually the happy moment which took one from it for ever, and, instead of a stupid and unimaginative terrestrial creature, made one an intelligent being and a man or woman, which ever gender applies. Let us draw up the whole account in terms easily commensurable. What humans lose by the social contact is one’s natural liberty and an unlimited right to everything one tires to get and succeeds in getting; what one gains is civil liberty and the proprietorship of all one possesses. If we are to avoid mistake in weighing one against the other, we must clearly distinguish natural liberty, which is bounded only by the strength of the individual, from civil liberty, which is limited by the general will; and possession, which is merely the effect of force or the right of the first occupier, from property, which can be founded only on an absolute title. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20
We might, over and above all this, add, to what a human acquires in the civil state, moral liberty, which alone makes one truly master of oneself; for the mere impulse of appetite is slavery, while obedience to a law which we prescribe to ourselves is liberty. However, I have already said too much on this head, and the philosophical meaning of the World liberty does not now concern us. Both straight and improvisational exchanges presuppose a number of ways to pay psychological dues. For example, we may simply feign the owed feeling, sometimes without intending to succeed; or we may offer the greater gift of trying to amplify a real feeling that we already have; or we may try to reframe an event and offer ourselves for the moment reconstituted by successful deep acting. In light of these possibilities, spontaneous feeling itself becomes a choice of what gesture to make. Many of the cities Victorian hoses are undervalued and under attack because of Urban Renewal. The madness is destroying this unique architectural ensemble and replacing it with sterile buildings that do not even have a sense to fence in their backyards. However, we are part of a gathering wave of appreciation for what is unique about this city, both physically and socially. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20
Because of the resurgent economy under President Trump, people see old buildings in imaginative ways and a recusing the city’s vintage houses. Today it is almost impossible to find a shabby Victorian house in all of California. California’s wooden Victorian row houses prove to be surprisingly adaptable over time. Many have come full circle in their nearly one-hundred-and-fifty-year history from middle-class, single-family houses to being broken up into rooming houses or apartments, and back again to single-family dwellings. Their syncopated pattern of bay windows delights the eye; their just-right density creates sociable neighbourhoods; they are land-and energy-efficient; and they link us with our rich history. Today people come from all over the World to walk the streets and enjoy the exuberance of our Victorian heritage. When silver was discovered under the treeless hills of western Nevada, San Francisco went wild with a robust appetite of stock speculation. While everyone has heard of the Gold Rush of 1849 that made California famous, what they do not know is that most of that wealth ended up in New York City or London; very little of it stayed in frontier San Francisco. However, the Comstock silver bonanza was different; much of the wealth extracted from the rich Nevada mines was invested in, or was spent in San Francisco. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20
Here, the precious minerals funded banks and insurance companies, built great hotels and fancy restaurants, patronized luxury shops—and produced showy architecture. Land speculation and building took off. Investors bought sandy blocks or lots and constructed commercial and residential architecture during the prosperous economic development. The good times peaked in 1868-69, to be followed by a drastic recession that lasted four years. In 1874 another impressive economic expansion flourished, spurred by a second delicious discovery of Nevada silver. It lasted until 1877. By the 1879s, California was well integrated into the World economy, and it fell into the severe, Worldwide Great Depression that hand people jumping out of windows from 1878-1884, when 18,000 businesses went bankrupt, including 89 railroads. Ten states and hundreds of banks went bankrupt and unemployment rates hovered around 14 percent, which is why so many people like President Trump being in office. Although things are not perfect, the economy is thriving and unemployment is around 3 percent. You can think about to 2008, when hundreds of thousands of people were being laid off every day, state workers were forced to work without pay, and unemployment in some regions was around 21 percent and foreclosures were at a sky-high pace. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20
I knew a man who was a very strict tither. He gave exactly 10 percent of his income to God’s work: never one penny less and, as far as I know, never one penny more. I asked him why he tithed so religiously. He replied, “I would be afraid not to.” I knew this man fairly well, and I suspect his motivation was mixed. He did somewhat enjoy giving his 10 percent; but his basic motivation was a fear of the consequences if he did not tithe. He was not motivated to tithe from a joyful and grateful heart. By contrast, the apostle Paul appealed to Christ’s grace as a motivation to give. He said, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich,” reports 2 Corinthians 8.9. Paul was not laying a guilt trip, on the Corinthian believers. Rather, he wanted them not only to give generously, but to give from a sense of gratitude for God’s grace. He wanted people to give, not from a sense of duty and compulsion, but cheerfully as a loving response to what God had already given them in Christ. Many of us are often like the tither. We are motivated more by a fear that God will either punish us or withhold some blessing from us than we are from love of God. We get up early in the morning to have quiet time, not because we truly desire fellowship with God, but because we are afraid we will forfeit God’s blessing that day if we do not. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20
However, that is not true for all of us. My life had been extremely difficult and I learned about God as a youth and have spent the last thirteen years drawing closer to Him because I want to become a better person and experience all this magic and saving grace God has to offer us and because when I die, I want to go to Heaven. And while my life is not much better than it was before, I have seen God’s grace saving me from disasters and am grateful for that and work daily on building a bridge to God’s heart so I can have a compelling testimony of how after so much oppression and discrimination, God made the impossible possible. “For the person living by grace, a loving response to the abundant grace of God already has manifested in Christ. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again,” reports 2 Corinthians 5.14-15. While there is a lot of spiritual truth in this passage, the essential teaching is that Christ’s love compels us to live no longer for ourselves but for Him who died and was raised again. The main subject is one again commitment to the lordship of Jesus Christ in every area of our lives. We are no longer to live for ourselves but for him. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20
That kind of submission to authority takes submission, understand, maturity and humbleness. It can take a life time to understand that we do not want to live a normal life, we do not want what we deserve, but we need God’s grace. We are to make His will the rule of our lives and His glory the goal for which we live. However, what is the wellspring of this commitment? What motivating principle will cause a person to live no longer for oneself but for God? In the clear and forceful vision of Jesus and His Kingdom, as our personality becomes progressively more reorganized around God and His eternal life, self-denial moves beyond more or less frequently acts to settled disposition and character. At first we must very self-consciously deny ourselves—reject the preeminence of what we want, when and as we want it—and we must look to quite specific motions of God’s grace in and around us to guide and strengthen us in our occasions of self-denial. We will also need a wise and constant use of disciplines for the spiritual life. This is because, from where we start, the substances of ourselves, formed in a World against God, is ready to act otherwise in all of its dimensions, especially in the social and bodily. Our very habits of thinking, feeling, and willing are wrongly poised. We shall say more about this later, and about how we can and must work with God in the process of spiritual (trans)formation. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20
God alone is altogether immutable; whereas every creature is in some way mutable. Be it known therefore that a mutable thing can be called so in two ways: by a power in itself; and by a power possessed by another. For all creatures before they existed, were possible, not by any created power, since no creature is eternal, but by the divine power alone, inasmuch as God could produce them into existence. Thus, as the production of a thing into existence depends on the will of God, so likewise it depends on His will that thing should be preserved; for He does not preserve them otherwise than by ever giving them existence; hence if God took awake His action from them, all things would be reduced to nothing. Therefore as it was in the Creator’s power to produce them before they existed in themselves, so likewise it is in the Creator’s power when they exist in themselves to bring them to nothing. In this way therefore, by the power of another—namely, of God—they are mutable, inasmuch as they are producible from nothing by God, and are by God reducible from existence to non-existence. “And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things,” reports Moroni 10.4-5. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20
O God of love, O Giver of concord, Who hast given one counsel for our profit, with a new commandment, through Thine Only-begotten Son, that we should love one another, even as Thou didst love us, the unworthy and the wandering, and gavest Thy beloved Son for our life and salvation; we pray Thee, Lord, give to us Thy servants, in all time of our life on Earth, (but especially and pre-eminently now,) a mind forgetful of past ill-will, a pure conscience and sincere thoughts, and a heart to love our people. “And whatsoever thing is good is just and true; wherefore, nothing that is good denieth the Christ, but acknowledgeth that he is,” reports Moroni 10.6. Glorious and Holy God, provocations against Thy divine majesty have filled my whole life. My offenses have been countless and aggravated. Conscience has rebuked me, friends have admonished me, the examples of others have reproached me, Thy rod has chastised me, Thy kindness allured me. Thou has seen abhorred all my sins and couldst easily and justly have punished me, yet Thou hast spared me, been gracious unto me, given me Thy help, invited me to Thy table. O God, Who are the unsearchable abyss of peace, the ineffable sea of love, the fountain of blessing, and the bestower of affection, Who sendest peace to those that receive it; open to us this day the sea of Thy love, and water us with plenteous streams from the riches of Thy grace, and from the most sweet springs of Thy benignity. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20
Make us children of quietness, and heirs of peace. Enkindle in us the fire of Thy love; sow in us Thy fear; strengthen our weakness by Thy power; bind us closely to Thee and to each other in one firm and indissoluble bond of unity. Lord, I thankfully obey Thy call, accept of Thy goodness, acquiesce in Thy gospel appointments. I believe that Jesus Thy Son has plenteous redemption; I apply to Him for His benefits, give up my mind implicitly to His instructions, trust and glory in His sacrifice, revere and love His authority, pray that His grace may reign in my life, I will not love a World that crucified Him, neither cherish nor endure he sin that put Him to grief, nor suffer Him to be wounded by others. At the cross that relieves my conscience let me learn lessons of self-denial, forgiveness and submission, feel motives to obedience, find resources for all need of the divine life. Then let me be what I profess, do as well as teach, live as well as hear religion. “And ye may know that He is, by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore I would exhort you that ye deny not the power of God; for He worketh by power, according to the faith of the Children of men, the same today and tomorrow, and forever. And again, I exhort you, my brethren, that ye deny not the gifts of God, for they are many; and they come from the same God. And there are different ways that these gifts are administered; but it is the same God who worketh all in all; and they are given by the manifestations of the Spirit of God unto people, to profit them,” Moroni 10.7-8. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20
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Randolph Harris II International 