Conflict

What is the personal cost when heroic leadership is idealised?

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What is the personal cost when heroic leadership is idealised?

“In our minds the idea of authority – which is what they represented – implied deeper insights and a more humane wisdom. But the first dead man that we saw shattered this conviction.” 

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque writes about the loss of a generation during wartime – both physically and socially. The blunted writing style and flat characters contrast with the descriptions and experiences, asking us for listen to the trauma of the young men who must sacrifice themselves for the collective ideals of leadership and older generations. 

Literature One-liner

What does it mean to be young when the hands that shaped your future lead you to your death?

Leadership one-liner

Heroic leadership can inspire, but at what cost to those it demands sacrifice from?

SHould a book be compulsory reading?

Absolutely. Yet at the same time, never.

From the one-star reviews I browsed, All Quiet on the Western Front seems to have been compulsory reading for many English classes. I went through many one-star reviews to try to understand the critiques, and it helped to frame my own understanding of the story even further. 

This is not a defence of the book, or an attack on the one-star reviews. It is intended as a challenge to revisit the novel. 

When the social narrative is broken 

It is a reoccurring theme in our lives and stories that each situation attracts a different type of leader and perceived need for leadership. One type of leadership that saturates our social narratives and stories is that of heroic leadership, and this need for hero has persisted throughout history and shows no sign of diminishing.

For those who are sacrificed and silenced in order to build and protect this image of a heroic leader, it can break apart the social narratives that hold their lives in place.

Hypnotic heroes

Characterised by a charismatic and visionary individual, heroic leadership focuses on a saviour-type of figure with centralised, top-down decision-making. Seeking an authoritative figure with the answers is compelling when the world is dark, and we see hero leadership in corporate jobs, politics and throughout our media. The hero leader offers us a future that is blindingly bright with hope and direction, ultimately creating a unified group guided by pride, aligned norms and high expectations. It is also propaganda and describes an idealised image rather than reality.

For those in the shadow

All Quiet on the Western Front is set during a time of heroic leadership, with authoritative saviour figures who are supported by authoritative figures. Wartime is a situation that attracts people to heroic political and military leaders, creating a forceful current of unity and behaviour that are guided by the hero. For those who experience the social ideals turn to personal experience, there is a division that emerges between those who continue to look directly into the bright shininess of the hero, and those who have seen what lies in the shadows. 

In All Quiet on the Western Front, we are taken into the experiences of a generation silenced by what lies in the shadows. Their experiences were inexplicable, creating a division between those who had been at their side, and families and friends who often rejected the experiences of those at the front.

A generation that never found their voice

Paul is the narrator of the novel. A 19-year-old German at the front during World War I. Early in the story he recounts how the boys of his class were marched out of school by their form-master, led into the recruiting office and encouraged to enlist. He tells of the ideals and expectations of those who would remain at home and the threat of rejection and derision if they stayed. Persuaded by their belief in elders and the ideals of authority figures, the final nail in the coffin is the fear of rejection by those they love and respect. 

“It wasn’t easy to stay out of it because at that time even our parents used the word ‘coward’ at the drop of a hat.” 

– Paul describing the beginning of a social narrative breaking apart as their generation realise their own homes and communities are no longer a refuge from the world (Chapter 1)
The personal cost

The most reluctant of the boys who enlists, the boy’s death as the first of the group is recounted in simple yet harrowing sentences. It is easy to skim these lines and miss the guilt and grief that echoes in the matter-of-fact words. The writing style of this book shows us the narrative of one who has learnt to blunt the wounds of memories. Would we be more sympathetic to the writing style and the story if it has been written autobiographical rather than semi-autobiographical? Do we need deep scars to be accompanied by harrowing and emotional recollections? 

Trauma as entertainment 

There is a blurred line between dramatised entertainment and documented trauma. All Quiet on the Western Front is a difficult book to read. Never have I felt the need to put down a book at the end of each chapter to sit with the words, but each chapter of this book created a painful papercut in my mind that demanded time. For those who were handed the book as compulsory reading, there were those who considered the topic boring or “a downer”. I would suggest it is our generation’s privilege to distance ourselves from what is depressing or “a downer”, but not to the point that we require documented trauma to be elevated to dramatised entertainment. Instead, I would say that a book like this is not here with us in mind – instead it is a voice that needs to be heard. For those who want to listen, All Quiet on the Western Front waits with the expectation that it will not be received with sympathy. 

There are no prizes for judgement or criticism 

A book invites us to reflect on the response it generates in us. To consider the story in All Quiet on the Western Front as ‘flat’ is an understandable observation about the writing. It was not an impression I had, instead I felt the impact of violence that was stripped down and laid bare. It is matter-of-fact, and if we perceive a lack of connection with the characters, I would challenge that it is an opportunity to see the dehumanisation of war. 

“We’ve been melted down, and now we have all been restruck so that we are all the same… only as an afterthought and in a strange and shamefaced way are we still individual human beings.” 

– Paul reflecting on how dehumanised they have become at the front (Chapter 11)
So, why this book?

Writing this novel cost the author, Erich Maria Remarque, his citizenship and he was exiled from Germany. The book has been burned and banned, criticised and challenged for its unpatriotic themes and anti-war promotion. Why? Is it not ironic that the book lays out the danger of authoritative decisions to an individual’s freedom and life – yet burning and banning is a dismissive and authoritative control of an individual’s freedom to listen and learn from others?

“They were supposed to be the ones who would help us eighteen-year-olds to make the transition, who would guide us into adult life, into a world of work, of responsibilities, of civilized behaviour and progress – into the future.” 

– The first part of a quote raging against the generation who pushed them into war (Chapter 1)
when we look to others to guide us in our lives

In All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul opens up to the reader while on the front line. Young as he is, he takes the reader from the shelter of school and home as the boys are marched through the rigid structure of the military and out into the trenches of the Western Front. The reflections and observations he narrates describe a natural adherence to the system relative to their youth and limited experiences in life. At 19-years-old they find themselves distanced from their childhood and parents, yet without roots in their own independent lives. 

 “In our minds the idea of authority – which is what they represented – implied deeper insights and a more humane wisdom. But the first dead man that we saw shattered this conviction.” 

– The second part of the quote that rages against the generation who pushed them into war (Chapter 1)

The front line is an abyss – where the boys see their expectations and lives torn apart. The atrocities of war are horrific but there is an unsettling voice that reoccurs through the pages. The one that points at the self-serving and brutal disregard of authority for the lives of individuals. The young, expectant boys on the brink of stepping into their lives, who instead realise they are disposable and interchangeable. Disregarded by the decision-makers and dismissed by their loved ones, their worth measured by how they face death before they have had a chance to live. 

 “While they went on writing and making speeches, we saw field hospitals and men dying: while they preached the service of the state as the greatest thing, we already knew that the fear of death is even greater.” 

– The third part of the quote that rages against the generation who pushed them into war (Chapter 1)
Banned? Burned? Compulsory? Recommended?

Are these expressed experiences to be interpreted as anti-war? Perhaps, if the position of this criticism is from a pro-war perspective, or an authoritarian desire to control the narrative. From a more neutral perspective, it is a story of life’s unfulfilled promise. Is it boring or flat? Lacking connection with characters? It is difficult to connect with people who have been disillusioned and numbed, who feel disconnected from the lives they had and the lives hoped for and expected. 

“All at once our eyes had been opened. And we saw that there was nothing left of their world. Suddenly we found ourselves horribly alone – and we had to come to terms with it alone as well.” 

– The last part of the quote, and the point where the social narrative breaks apart (Chapter 1)

All Quiet on the Western Front should not be compulsory reading, or a book universally accepted or loved. That would be too authoritarian. Instead, consider it a voice of a silenced generation. Boys who were raised to worry about test scores and futures, before being put to death and swept aside by a society shadowed by hero leadership.

Could you make a decision that would leave a mark on your soul?

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Could you make a decision that would leave a mark on your soul?

“It was simultaneously right and hideously wrong.”

We, the Drowned, by Carsten Jensen is a sweeping novel stretching across generations and exploring how duty, desire and survival evolve across generations. Each individual life is shaped by the sea, the tight-knit community of their hometown Marstal, and the micro-communities onboard ship.

Literature One-liner

To go to sea is to follow in the footsteps of those before you, yet each voyage introduces a challenge that depends on instincts rather than instructions.

Leadership one-liner

To lead others brings moral weight and consequences that outlive your command and shape lives.

Leadershitship 

A leader was once heard to say he that he did not care what happened to anyone in the organisation – unless that person’s results directly contributed to his bonus. The other leaders sat in silence, until another leader spoke up in admiration of the other leader’s honesty. Is this leadership?

Leadership is rare 

The phenomenon of leadership is one that occurs in the relationships between people. The balance between results and people is critical. When decisions are based on the bank account of a power holder, that is where leadershit happens. It is the ability of a leader to make a decision that is impartial and independent of emotion, while still being entirely connected through relationships.

Erm… what?

To put the quote into the perspective of leadership and expand on this point, we need to join Knud Erik as he sails through a sea of drowning men, and ignoring their pleas to save their lives.
There is a greater good, explains the leaders onshore. If a ship slows to rescue survivors of other sunk ships, the ship becomes a target for U-boats, and puts the lives of those on board at risk as well as the lives of those on land who depend on the ship’s cargo of essential war supplies. 
As captain, Knud Erik perceives these orders as being “simultaneously right and hideously wrong”.

As the leader executing the order, he sails through waters filled with blinking red distress lights on life vests and voices crying out for help. Knud Erik finds himself helplessly watching from the bridge of his ship as limbs are caught in their propellers and men implode from depth charges. The blinking red distress lights fade into the distance, each one signalling a man left to die of exposure. 

Decision to action 

It is a powerful and uncomfortable image. At the same time, it is a critical reflection on what we are willing to live with if we take on a leader role. Decision making skills can be taught, and are considered a key aspect of successful leadership. The ability to use a broad frame for decision-making while simultaneously simplifying the process results in fast and accurate decision-making and is considered a strong leadership skill. A leader is expected to respond to knowledge rather than emotions, yet at the same time use relationships and emotions to execute results. In We, the Drowned, deciding whether or not to follow the order results in Knud Erik feeling trapped by circumstance, and he takes a second and more personal decision. 

Leaders arise in times of difficulty 

A leadership conflict posed for us by reading We, the Drowned, is that we are bound to the changes in our world. Our lives and beliefs are defined on where we live and how we see life, yet we are pulled by tides and currents that are outside of our control. The world changes, and people find themselves reacting in unexpected ways. 

Good leadership is only partly good decision-making 

Knud Erik follows the premise of “good” leadership decision-making when he obeys the orders. He uses his knowledge and experience towards the greater good, at the cost of the drowning men around him. The human cost of the decision is what drives him to move from being a holder of a leader role to leadership.
Knud Erik takes a second decision to shoulder the consequences of this order alone. He takes the helm and sends his crew below deck. He does this to shield his crew from the responsibility of this impossible decision, and makes him the sole responsible for the execution of this order. Knud Erik’s leadership shields his crew from the mental pressure of following orders that sacrifice lives, while looking into the faces of the doomed men.

is leadership about Responsibility at the cost of self? 

Is that what makes the difference between a leader and a power holder? In We, The Drowned, Knud Erik mitigates the impact on the crew so they could function to keep the ship and convoy safe, sacrificing the price of his mental and physical health for emergency supplies. He watched men die so that others – some of them unseen along the logistics line – would survive.
If Knud Erik had directed others to follow the orders, he would have protected himself and exposed others to the horror, risking that another man would fail in the execution of the orders. Yet if Knud Erik took the full weight of the decision entirely on his own shoulders, his deteriorating physical and mental health also risks his ability to protect his crew and lead.

At what price? 

We, the Drowned offers an example of how the ever-changing nature of the world around us can put us into positions that challenge the core of who we are. Feeling trapped by circumstances has an impact on our perception of stress, and becomes a default factor in our decision-making and risk factor for subsequent mistakes. After all, we are only human and have our identities, values and conscience to live with long after the decision has been made.
Perhaps you are not at war or feeling alone at the helm as Knud Erik experiences, but we can all experience being at war with ourselves. Decision-making may very well depend on emotionless assessment – but the cost of that decision may not be acceptable to you or others. 

What is the book about? 

We, the Drowned is a complex weaving of lives encompassing nearly 200 years in a Danish sailing community. As we follow different characters, there are several themes that emerge. Community and conflict, the impact of change, transition from childhood to adulthood, and gaps between generations to name a few. 

The grasping of power 

A theme about the people who step forward to grasp power was also part of this novel. We, the Drowned demonstrates several characters who are motivated by personal desire, dark personality traits or personal bias. 

Read past the individual stories 

We, the Drowned covers a broad range of human behaviours and interpersonal interactions to reflect over. The storylines demonstrate over and over the passive inability to protect oneself or others when a destructive or malicious individual steps into power. When authority and power is wielded with cruelty and personal desire driving decision-making and actions there is an impact on each generation. The boys of the town always react to authority figures and respond to aggressive levels of control; however a learned helplessness develops that follows the boys as they move into adulthood and onboard ships. 

In change, we seek what remains stable 

Regardless of who holds power, the world is always changing. The young are being directed along a pathway changing with political instability and technological advancement, and each older generation finds themselves watching their way of life slipping away. There is an ongoing search for what is stable and underlying all of the separate experiences is a shared identity. 

Community and identity both divide and unite us  

Birth in Marstal comes with a predefined destiny and shared childish enemies. The micro-communities that exist onboard ship provides a fertile ground for cruelty and wielding of power, rather than leadership. Out of the eyes of the broader community, power imbalances emerge and the boys and men find values and identity challenged, often with deadly and meaningless consequences. 
Values may be merely shadows of words that shake their beliefs, however identity can be held deep within a person and guarded fiercely and secretly. In We, the Drowned, the characters take their identity as part of the Marstal community – generations of seafarers and adventurers – into the wider world. Here it becomes a tool to help them find one another amongst strangers and becomes an undefinable secret part of themselves.  

Women as wallpaper 

Male dominant narratives push the female perspective into the background of the story. Women are described as being left alone to raise families, and subsequently the female narrative becomes a mere shadow in the main thread. There is an implied helplessness to the independence of the men, and the women remain acting out generation after generation to a duty to children and the future independent men. 

The woman with unexpected decisions 

Only one woman who seeks security reaps the rewards of unexpected power. With the removal of responsibilities, she follows a similar narrative path as the men – into an attempt to control her future. Following a narrow frame of perspective tainted by her bias and fear, the resulting decision-making develop into a case of disruptive leadership, unchecked by the passive larger group of the community who underestimate her intentions and abilities.  

what happens after this quote?  

In order to ignore survivors, Knud Erik makes another leadership decision and the crew respond with a decision of their own. 
Knud Erik isolates himself, taking the full responsibility on himself and unable to connect, communicate or function with other people – both when at the helm and when at rest. Withdrawing into a lack of consciousness through alcohol, he feels he is operating out of himself. A state that is not sustainable and in leadership terms, risks future decision-making. In return, his crew uphold his isolation and keep their distance. Callous, I thought. 
However, the crew’s decision to respect his isolation is described as shielding Knud Erik as their captain. In acknowledgement of the personal cost of his decision, they decide that any sign of sympathy would cause him to break down and fail as a leader.  

“They shielded him so he could get on with the job of shielding them. They needed a captain and they gave him the chance to be that man.” 

Part IV – The End of the World

Knud Erik’s choice to take the consequences of the decision positively impacts the perception of his leadership amongst the crew, while simultaneously breaking down his mental and physical health.  
In terms of the quote that we have worked with – 

“It was simultaneously right and hideously wrong.” 

Part IV – The End of the World

You may have assumed that this line was from his decision-making to obey the rule to ignore survivors. However, this line is written at a point when Knud Erik eventually reaches breaking point and disobeys the rule. 
As the situation around him dissolves into chaos, he flings himself into a life-threatening position in an attempt to salvage his own sense of humanity, and to save at least one survivor. 

How to read this book 

It is an incredibly detailed story. Characters are developed and discarded along the way, and the progression through time beautifully encompasses the fleeting impact of people on one another’s lives. To hold so many personalities and events within the pages makes it a difficult read. The trick to reading this book is the hooks and baits he lays out in the overlapping narratives to generate curiosity.  
And like all books that make an impression on me, there were times that I just stopped to enjoy the words and the phrasing. The opening line, for example, captures my imagination:  

“Many years ago there lived a man called Laurids Madsen, who went up to heaven and came down again thanks to his boots.” 

Part I – The Boots

It is a book to pick up and read a few pages day by day – reflecting on each moment as a separate glimpse into a kaleidoscope of perspectives that comes together differently for us all.