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Volume X Spring 2008 COMPASS A Journal of Leadership and Service at Birmingham-Southern College Spring 2008 Volume X Editor-in-Chief Assistant Editor Staff Advisor CHANNING KENNEDY KATHLEEN SMITH JEANNE JACKSON In the preface to The Leader’s Companion, J. Thomas Wren writes, “Leadership is not a ‘fad,’ but a concept that is both current and timeless.” Understanding leadership is essential to understanding the human condition. Whether or not we admit it, leadership touches each of our lives on a daily basis. We may experience the effects of a leader’s decision, be inspired by a leader’s unique ideas, or even struggle in our own leadership endeavors. Continued contact with this elusive phenomenon certainly generates curiosity and a desire to know and understand the real purpose of leadership. As Wren comments further, “Knowing more about leadership and how the process operates permits one to realize the real end of leadership: the achievement of mutual goals which are intended to enhance one’s group, organization, or society.” In that sense, the Compass serves as a tool for exploring the definition of leadership and, more specifically, leadership that aims to impact our world. The Compass seeks to provide a forum for the discussion of issues related to leadership and service across every academic discipline and welcomes submissions from all students on these topics. This year’s edition of the Compass covers issues of leadership and service from a variety of perspectives. Carson Land’s paper Groupthink in Stalinist Russia employs the theory of Groupthink as a way to explain the lack of critical thinking in the Soviet Union. James Randolph examines leadership in the pursuit of social change in his paper Portrait of Compassion: Muhammad Yunus as a Citizen Leader. Missy Golson’s paper A Grain of Salt Can Shake an Empire investigates the charismatic leadership of Gandhi as he united the people of India against the repressive actions of the British government. In his paper “Ideas Have Consequences:” The John Birch Society and the Reasonable Right, Peter Starr critically examines the leadership of the historic 1960’s anti-communist movement. In The Service Mindset in American Colleges: Motivations, Problems, and What’s Going Right, Laura Burks presents one point of view in the debate over the role that social justice should play in academics, while challenging her peers to commit to creating a more just society. Our last two papers explore leadership in the movement for civil and human rights. Diana Wilmoth’s paper The Ideological, Cultural, and Political Layers Clothed in Myanmar’s Saffron Revolution for Democracy and Human Rights explores this issue with regards to Myanmar, while Gary Crosby examines leadership in the American Civil Rights Movement in Jack Greenberg: A Visionary Civil Rights Champion for Racial Equality. Together, these papers give us a glimpse into the phenomenon of leadership and the ways it can be used to impact society. I would like to thank our faculty advisor, Jeanne Jackson, for her support and guidance throughout the publication process. Also, thank you to Patricia Hanson for her organizational help and Tracy Thomas for her much appreciated assistance. Lastly, I would like to thank the Student Government Association for its continued funding of the Compass and for providing students with this unique forum to discuss the important and essential issues of leadership and service. We hope you enjoy the 2008 edition of the Compass. Channing Kennedy 1 Editor-in-Chief, Compass Contents 3 Groupthink in Stalinist Russa Carson Land Submissions should be sent to: Editor-in-Chief, Compass 6 Portrait of Compassion: Publications Board Muhammad Yunus as a Citizen Leader Birmingham-Southern College James Randolph 900 Arkadelphia Road Birmingham, Alabama 35254 14 A Grain of Salt Can Shake an Empire Missy Golson 19 “Ideas Have Consequences:” The John Birch Society and the Reasonable Right Peter Starr 26 The Service Mindset in American Colleges: Motivations, Problems, and What’s Going Right Laura L. P. Burks © Copyright 2008 by COMPASS 32 The Ideological, Cultural, and Political and Birmingham-Southern College Layers Clothed in Myanmar’s Saffron Revolution Diana Wilmoth Printed by EBSCO 41 Jack Greenberg: A Visionary Civil Rights Birmingham, Alabama Campaign for Racial Equality Gary Crosby 2 Groupthink in Stalinist Russia Carson Land Carson Land “Written for Dr. Randy Law’s When Mary Leder left the Soviet Union in 1965, she left her in- course, Russia in the Twentieth laws, her husband, and their daughter behind beneath Soviet soil. Century, the idea for the essay After thirty-four difficult years living under Soviet rule, Mary would began after I read Mary Leder’s not realize the extent of the Soviet deception until she arrived in the memoir of life under Stalin in United States and could read and think freely. Mary Leder’s memoir, the Soviet Union. Applying My Life in Stalinist Russia, focuses on her experiences in the 1930s Irving Janis’ Groupthink theory and 1940s, but her tale begins in 1931 America. Born in the United to Leder’s memoir helped me States to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, Mary grew up in Los understand how Joseph Stalin Angeles, California. The Great Depression hit her family hard. gained and retained power Enamored with devotion to the Communist cause, her parents despite his many opponents.” decided to return to the Soviet Union, a land where jobs were supposedly plentiful and life was easy. Though Mary’s experiences in Carson is a junior English Stalinist Russia differed markedly from her expectations, she major and an active participant remained loyal to the Soviet Union for at least the first half of her in the Honors Program, thirty-four year residence. Irving Janis’ leadership theory of Leadership Studies, and “Groupthink” explains why Mary remained inwardly as well as Service-Learning. Carson is outwardly loyal to the Soviet Union. Coined in the fashion of George also involved in Women in Orwell’s 1984, Groupthink refers to Janis’ observation that social Leadership Development conformity leads to a decrease in critical thinking.1 While Janis (WILD) and serves as a focuses on the Groupthink phenomenon in decision-making Resident Advisor and on Honor leadership groups, his general observations are applicable to the Council. Carson has population of the Soviet Union. participated in Service- Mary’s childhood in America provided a contrast to the Soviet Learning interim projects in system, yet her California involvement in the Communist Youth both Alabama and India and Group had instilled her with the ideology and promise of the Party. worked as a Hess Fellow at After their hardships in America, she and her parents were primed to Vital Voices Global Partnership succumb to Soviet Groupthink. When they arrived in the Jewish in the summer of 2007. Carson section of the commune in Volochayevka, they accepted the bedbugs has also been selected as a and food shortages as part of the struggle for socialism. Divided into Public Policy and International three sections – Jews, Ukrainians, and Communists – the commune Affairs Fellow at UC Berkeley operated hierarchically with the Communists controlling work for the summer of 2008. assignments and receiving better food and supplies. Mary’s parents witnessed unequal food and labor distribution, but they accepted the view of fellow commune members that it was the duty of the Jews to dedicate themselves to the working classes in the construction of socialism. Miserable in the village, Mary quickly decided to travel to Moscow to attend college. She spoke no Russian and had neither job nor housing, but Mary and her parents were convinced that if she could get to Moscow, she could reap the fruit of Soviet success. It was 1932, and as Mary’s father would tell her many years later, “We thought nothing bad could happen to you in a socialist country.”2 Mary’s departure for Moscow revealed her and her parents’ loss of critical thinking as they reasoned that even though Volochayevka fell far short of their expectations, Moscow would be better. They were 3 living in a socialist slum, but Mary’s parents retained their faith in socialism and rationalized that the Soviet Union would emerge victorious with time. Soon after her arrival in Moscow, Mary realized that her Russian was not sufficient for college admission. Her transformation from American child to Soviet woman began when she found work in a factory at the edge of the city and moved into the first of many communal apartments. She noticed the broken machinery and shortage of raw materials and occasionally heard murmurings of worker unrest; yet Mary eagerly participated in factory Komsomol activities. One afternoon when she had to leave a meeting early, Mary was shocked to find the factory gates locked. Only workers with special permission would be released. Mary was confused and questioned her supervisors about the practice, stating that the factory should not need to order workers’ Komsomol attendance. She believed that the workers should all want to join the Komsomol. Her supervisors did not answer the questions she raised about the importance of worker sincerity; instead, they criticized her outspokenness, blaming it on her “bourgeois” American birth.3 The societal pressure that silenced Mary at the factory carried over into her personal life. Soon after moving into the cramped six-person apartment, Mary realized that not all of her coworkers were living under the same circumstances. Galya Babushkin, the daughter of an Old Bolshevik, was also working at the factory, and she and Mary became close friends. Galya had postponed college to learn the “proletarian mentality” through factory work. Mary’s friendship with Galya included visits to the extravagant Metropol Hotel where Galya and her mother lived like aristocrats.