ABSTRACT
Leadership is dispersed among many groups in our society. The popular notion of top leadership is a fantasy of capricious power: The top man presses a button and something remarkable happens; he gives an order as the whim strikes him, and it is obeyed. Very few of our most prominent people take a really large view of the leadership assignment. Most of them are simply tending the machinery of that part of society to which they belong. Anyone who accomplishes anything of significance has more confidence than the facts would justify. The antileadership vaccine has more subtle and powerful ingredients. Leaders have a significant role in creating the state of mind that is the society. They can serve as symbols of the moral unity of the society. For a good many academic and other professional people, negative attitudes toward leadership go deeper than skepticism concerning the leader's integrity.
