Quote:A 'bad?' egg is a 'bad?' egg... but perhaps the egg could have been prevented from becoming 'bad?' had different circumstances been present
Perhaps,if for example he hadn't had an father who beat him literally unconscious,if his mother had not been smotheringly overprotective ,if WW1 hadn't begun, and had not ended with the stupidly vindictive treaty Of Versailles and crippling war reparations..
OR perhaps without all those things he may just have been a common or garden variety axe murderer. Or a boring, third rate artist. The rest of his gang of opportunists may also have remained nonentities.
My perception is that specific types of leaders are thrown up by circumstances. Such periods are called 'liminal',periods of unrest and change.Leaders which arise are called 'liminal figures",outsiders, such as Hitler at one end of the spectrum and Ghandi at the other.
Liminality is a concept much loved by Sociolgists and Anthropologists*.Even though it's only one view,it has always fascinated me as an analytical perspective.
Quote:Liminality (from the Latin word līmen, meaning "a threshold"[1]) The liminal state is characterized by ambiguity, openness, and indeterminacy.[citation needed] One's sense of identity dissolves to some extent, bringing about disorientation. Liminality is a period of transition where normal limits to thought, self-understanding, and behavior are relaxed - a situation which can lead to new perspectives.[citation needed]
People, places, or things may not complete a transition, or a transition between two states may not be fully possible. Those who remain in a state between two other states may become permanently liminal.[citation needed]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liminality
*See "Forrest of Symbols" by Victor Turner.For fun,Marina Warner's book on Joan of Arc is terrific.
