The Drum Major Instinct

For some reason, this year mobilized in me an appreciation and desire to read published essays and speeches, mostly those expressing opinions or theories. Opinion has often been a form of expression that i find the most meaningful and best presented through media and literature such as essays or speeches - not to mention movies and literature. A few months ago I read a speech by Martin Luther King Jr. entitled "The Drum Major Instinct," and reread it recently to reaffirm King's perception of exactly what the drum major instinct was to him.

Following is what i received from reading King's speech "The Drum Major Instinct"

King begins with a passage from the Gospel wherein James and John, disciples of Jesus, request that he designate a seat to his right and to his left for each of them to sit. To this request Jesus simply replies that the seats are not his to designate for any particular person, that the seats belong to those for whom they were prepared. Jesus goes on to say that those who fulfill the greatest positions are those who have committed to a servile lifestyle, not by title, but by responsibility. Of course, King says, the others are upset by James' and John's selfish request. However, he says, we all have in us the drum major instinct - the want to be first, the innate craving for recognition; therefore we should not be upset by this display of selfishness (as being upset is in itself a form of selfishness). Our entire existence even from inception, King says, is for the purpose of achieving the highest distinction. And regardless of their word, EVERYONE is a sucker for praise and EVERYONE is a sucker for recognition.

This is where the art of advertisement comes into play. The need to be better than the "Joneses," King says, where one person buys a car to impress his neighbor so his neighbor buys a more expensive car and the cycle goes on. And it is this kind of display that employs the ideal of an unharnessed "drum major instinct."

Another group of people give membership to another category of those who have not harnessed the drum major instinct. These are those who join groups which provide, even an unintentional, commitment to an exclusivist association such as a fraternity or sorority. Of course King isn't bashing fraternities and sororities. He's simply making a real life connection. We are so obsessed with appearing better than our neighbors that we neglect to realize that an unharnessed drum major instinct can ultimately be destructive as in the case of race relations. Consider a poor white man and a middle class black family living in the same city in the 1960s. The black man belongs to a higher socioeconomic class while the white man belongs to a supreme race. In the 1960s, the poorer white man would find satisfaction in his success as a member of the supreme race, condemning the black man for his inferiority without realizing his own oppression and trying to achieve justice for himself. Whether his "oppression" was one induced by "Social Darwinism" or "the man" keeping him down isn't the point here. The point is that the poor white man found comfort in the superiority of his race, thus finding a perverted right to put down another race - an unharnessed drum major instinct.

King said the following, and it needed no alteration simply because King said it best:

But let me rush on to my conclusion, because I want you to see what Jesus was really saying. What was the answer that Jesus gave these men? It's very interesting. One would have thought that Jesus would have condemned them. One would have thought that Jesus would have said, "You are out of your place. You are selfish. Why would you raise such a question?"
But that isn't what Jesus did; he did something altogether different. He said in substance, "Oh, I see, you want to be first. You want to be great. You want to be important. You want to be significant. Well, you ought to be. If you're going to be my disciple, you must be." But he reordered priorities. And he said, "Yes, don't give up this instinct. It's a good instinct if you use it right. (Yes) It's a good instinct if you don't distort it and pervert it. Don't give it up. Keep feeling the need for being important. Keep feeling the need for being first. But I want you to be first in love. (Amen) I want you to be first in moral excellence. I want you to be first in generosity. That is what I want you to do."

 

In other words the point of the drum major instinct is not to subscribe to the pursuit of greatness or recognition, but the understanding that in achieving that greatness, a servitude and thus a responsibility to serve everyone in the highest regard.