Ryanbutler
Regular Poster
- MBTI
- INFP
So, in my first non-emotional distress related post on this forum I thought I'd compile a little fact-file on INFJ leaders in World History for anybody who is interested any for anyone who thinks they can contribute.
Warning: this fact-file may be controversial. Of course nothing is set in stone and I could be wrong about the types of these leaders entirely. But, I noticed that they all shared some things in common, like
- being exiled and not caring/continuing their spiritual and intellectual resistance against whatever evil they perceived
- caring a whole lot about "their" people, whomever that might be
- having a very definite vision for the ideal version of their nation
"Good" Leaders
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in a small town in Gujarat in Western India in 1869. At this time - and at almost all times during Gandhi's life up until very close to his death - this region, like the rest of India, was under British Imperial control and had been ever since the early 19th century. At a young age he moved to South Africa for a period of time, and there witnessed firsthand the discrimination against all peoples of colour (there was also a sizable Indian community in South Africa at this time).
Experiencing such traumatic occurrences as being beaten by a coach driver for refusing to make way for a white passenger, his political views and ethics around this time began to develop. In the early 1900's Gandhi became involved with the protest movement of Indians against their discrimination and it was during this time in which he first began to urge non-violent resistance. Although the Indians were harassed and attacked by the state police, the method eventually proved a success and the South African government was pressured into negotiating.
For the rest of his life Gandhi would protest in India using his methods and beliefs that he had so far accumulated. Close to a million Indians served in the First World War, and Gandhi actively assisted with recruitment process (perhaps in an effort to get the British to "owe" him later on?). After the war he would engage in further provocations and demonstrations, often calling them off when things turned sour to avoid the bloodshed that he so despised.
In 1930 he began a campaign using his satyagraha method of non-violent resistance to end the British salt monopoly in India, made worst by their uncompromisingly harsh tax laws. Around this time the Indian National Congress - now a political party that rules India - appointed Gandhi as its national leader and his satyagraha methods as their weapon of choice against the occupation. In the Second World War the situation for India was much more dire. Many Indians fought and died to keep the Japanese advance in Burma and Bangladesh at bay, and many more starved to death under the incompetence of the British administration in the province of Bengal.
Gandhi's campaign intensified under the slogan of "Quit India" and through this pressure and the pressure of the US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was a major opponent of colonialism, independence was finally granted in 1947.
Unfortunately not all went well for the struggling new country. The British ignored Gandhi's vision and decided to split up India into two - a Muslim state in the East and West and a Hindu state in the centre (Pakistan and India respectively). Riots broke out and hundreds of thousands were killed. Gandhi managed to halt the violence eventually, but was assassinated a year later in January 1948 by a Hindu nationalist called Nathuram Godse, a man who strongly opposed the doctrine of satyagraha and decided to take his vision of an ideal India into his own hands. Although India faces many social and economic problems today, the positive legacy left by Gandhi is unmistakable.
Nelson Mandela
Like Gandhi, Mandela found his life purpose was fulfilled to his satisfaction in campaigning ceaselessly for the rights of his own people. The Afrikaans (British-Dutch ancestry) South African government - which I am sure you may know by now was rather brutal - had been discriminating against its native African majority for its entire existence. Nelson Mandela, known as "Madiba" to those closest to him, was born in 1918 in the small village of Mvezo as part of a Xhosa community, and also as part of the Thembu royal family.
Mandela's father died when he was just nine years old. His education in his topics of interest, including history, politics and African culture, continued until he began attendance at the University of Witwatersrand. Here he began to meet ANC (African National Congress) leaders and began to become influenced by their political views. Mandela soon became increasingly involved with the ANC and in 1948 when the white-only elected Nationalist coalition took power, apartheid which had until then been an informal affair began to become codified into law, and so with it the systematic oppression of the vast majority of the country's inhabitants. Mandela began to advocate after the 1948 election a more radical and revolutionary approach to combating the National Party.
Combining together with Indians and Communists (Mandela was originally an anti-communist but soon, like any good INFJ leader, changed his perspective after an incident occurred (his outvoting by the rest of the ANC council)) the ANC launched a "Defiance Campaign" against the South African government, which led to many arrests but also the vast increase in the overall size of the ANC - from 20 to 100,000 members.
His views by this stage favoured revolutionary armed struggle, as he saw no other option to dismantling the National Party government and the Afrikaner domination of the whole South African society. He was arrested in 1956 but soon released and took up work temporarily as an attorney, but the National Party would not be leaving him alone for much longer.
The government began to issue laws for passes to be worn by blacks in the country. After a day of demonstrations against these laws, police fired upon and killed 69 demonstrations in the infamous Sharpeville massacre. The massacre, and, by extension, the whole South African government was widely condemned at the time, but the National Party did not care.
Hiding with sympathetic communists, Mandela took to organising acts of sabotage against the National Party government. Although bombs were to be detonated Mandela made sure that no people were harmed - in the event hundreds were wounded and tens were killed by car bombs set off by ANC militant splinter groups. The Government found him eventually. In 1962 he was arrested and a year later put on trial. Although he gave a passionate speech, he and two others were accused of being communist saboteurs and sentenced to life imprisonment. For the next 26 years Mandela would find himself in one of three prisons. Slowly, his international fame began to increase as attention shifted towards the racist policies of the apartheid regime,
Coming soon...
"Neutral" Leaders
Thomas Jefferson
Coming soon...(yes, I can hear the disagreements already ... patience, all will be explained..
"Evil" Leaders
Chiang Kai-Shek (aka Jiang Jieshi)
Adolf Hitler
Ruhollah Khomeini (Ayatollah Khomeini
Osama bin Laden
Also coming soon...
If you think I forgot any please name some!
Warning: this fact-file may be controversial. Of course nothing is set in stone and I could be wrong about the types of these leaders entirely. But, I noticed that they all shared some things in common, like
- being exiled and not caring/continuing their spiritual and intellectual resistance against whatever evil they perceived
- caring a whole lot about "their" people, whomever that might be
- having a very definite vision for the ideal version of their nation
"Good" Leaders
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in a small town in Gujarat in Western India in 1869. At this time - and at almost all times during Gandhi's life up until very close to his death - this region, like the rest of India, was under British Imperial control and had been ever since the early 19th century. At a young age he moved to South Africa for a period of time, and there witnessed firsthand the discrimination against all peoples of colour (there was also a sizable Indian community in South Africa at this time).
Experiencing such traumatic occurrences as being beaten by a coach driver for refusing to make way for a white passenger, his political views and ethics around this time began to develop. In the early 1900's Gandhi became involved with the protest movement of Indians against their discrimination and it was during this time in which he first began to urge non-violent resistance. Although the Indians were harassed and attacked by the state police, the method eventually proved a success and the South African government was pressured into negotiating.
For the rest of his life Gandhi would protest in India using his methods and beliefs that he had so far accumulated. Close to a million Indians served in the First World War, and Gandhi actively assisted with recruitment process (perhaps in an effort to get the British to "owe" him later on?). After the war he would engage in further provocations and demonstrations, often calling them off when things turned sour to avoid the bloodshed that he so despised.
In 1930 he began a campaign using his satyagraha method of non-violent resistance to end the British salt monopoly in India, made worst by their uncompromisingly harsh tax laws. Around this time the Indian National Congress - now a political party that rules India - appointed Gandhi as its national leader and his satyagraha methods as their weapon of choice against the occupation. In the Second World War the situation for India was much more dire. Many Indians fought and died to keep the Japanese advance in Burma and Bangladesh at bay, and many more starved to death under the incompetence of the British administration in the province of Bengal.
Gandhi's campaign intensified under the slogan of "Quit India" and through this pressure and the pressure of the US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was a major opponent of colonialism, independence was finally granted in 1947.
Unfortunately not all went well for the struggling new country. The British ignored Gandhi's vision and decided to split up India into two - a Muslim state in the East and West and a Hindu state in the centre (Pakistan and India respectively). Riots broke out and hundreds of thousands were killed. Gandhi managed to halt the violence eventually, but was assassinated a year later in January 1948 by a Hindu nationalist called Nathuram Godse, a man who strongly opposed the doctrine of satyagraha and decided to take his vision of an ideal India into his own hands. Although India faces many social and economic problems today, the positive legacy left by Gandhi is unmistakable.
Nelson Mandela
Like Gandhi, Mandela found his life purpose was fulfilled to his satisfaction in campaigning ceaselessly for the rights of his own people. The Afrikaans (British-Dutch ancestry) South African government - which I am sure you may know by now was rather brutal - had been discriminating against its native African majority for its entire existence. Nelson Mandela, known as "Madiba" to those closest to him, was born in 1918 in the small village of Mvezo as part of a Xhosa community, and also as part of the Thembu royal family.
Mandela's father died when he was just nine years old. His education in his topics of interest, including history, politics and African culture, continued until he began attendance at the University of Witwatersrand. Here he began to meet ANC (African National Congress) leaders and began to become influenced by their political views. Mandela soon became increasingly involved with the ANC and in 1948 when the white-only elected Nationalist coalition took power, apartheid which had until then been an informal affair began to become codified into law, and so with it the systematic oppression of the vast majority of the country's inhabitants. Mandela began to advocate after the 1948 election a more radical and revolutionary approach to combating the National Party.
Combining together with Indians and Communists (Mandela was originally an anti-communist but soon, like any good INFJ leader, changed his perspective after an incident occurred (his outvoting by the rest of the ANC council)) the ANC launched a "Defiance Campaign" against the South African government, which led to many arrests but also the vast increase in the overall size of the ANC - from 20 to 100,000 members.
His views by this stage favoured revolutionary armed struggle, as he saw no other option to dismantling the National Party government and the Afrikaner domination of the whole South African society. He was arrested in 1956 but soon released and took up work temporarily as an attorney, but the National Party would not be leaving him alone for much longer.
The government began to issue laws for passes to be worn by blacks in the country. After a day of demonstrations against these laws, police fired upon and killed 69 demonstrations in the infamous Sharpeville massacre. The massacre, and, by extension, the whole South African government was widely condemned at the time, but the National Party did not care.
Hiding with sympathetic communists, Mandela took to organising acts of sabotage against the National Party government. Although bombs were to be detonated Mandela made sure that no people were harmed - in the event hundreds were wounded and tens were killed by car bombs set off by ANC militant splinter groups. The Government found him eventually. In 1962 he was arrested and a year later put on trial. Although he gave a passionate speech, he and two others were accused of being communist saboteurs and sentenced to life imprisonment. For the next 26 years Mandela would find himself in one of three prisons. Slowly, his international fame began to increase as attention shifted towards the racist policies of the apartheid regime,
Coming soon...
"Neutral" Leaders
Thomas Jefferson
Coming soon...(yes, I can hear the disagreements already ... patience, all will be explained..
"Evil" Leaders
Chiang Kai-Shek (aka Jiang Jieshi)
Adolf Hitler
Ruhollah Khomeini (Ayatollah Khomeini
Osama bin Laden
Also coming soon...
If you think I forgot any please name some!
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