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JULES MASSERMAN, U.S. psychoanalyst: Leaders must fulfill three functions —provide for the well-being of the led, provide a social organization in which people feel relatively secure, and provide them with one set of beliefs. People like Pasteur and Salk are leaders in the first sense. People like Gandhi and Confucius, on one hand, and Alexander, Caesar and Hitler on the other, are leaders in the second and perhaps the third sense. Jesus and Buddha belong in the third category alone. Perhaps the greatest leader of all times was Mohammed, who combined all three functions. To a lesser degree, Moses did the same.
MARSHALL McLUHAN, Canadian communications philosopher: The late Siegfried Giedion, Swiss art historian and author of Mechanization Takes Command (1948). He was a student of formal structures in the man-made world and instituted the study of forms in everyday life. His book is a study of the death wish in modern man, with specific application to the mechanization of bread baking and meat packing. His most exciting moment was his discovery of the American barber chair.
WILLIAM McNEILL, U.S. historian (University of Chicago): If you measure leadership by impact, then you would have to name Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, the great prophets of the world. Among political leaders, Alexander may have been the greatest. He brought the Greek and Oriental civilizations together, and it's hard to conceive of this happening without his personal intervention. Lenin and Woodrow Wilson, who set the terms for political discussion. But both pale before two 19th century intellectual giants, Sigmund Freud and Lenin's own mentor, Karl Marx, the secular prophets of our time.
JEAN-FRANÇOIS REVEL, French author (Neither Marx nor Jesus): A great leader has original ideas and succeeds in having them accepted by millions or billions. These ideas can be wonderful or dreadful. Thus I have chosen the Athenian philosopher Epicurus and Adolf Hitler—the best and the worst. Epicurus because he defined a model way of life that was followed and is still followed today by many billions of people, which makes them happy without hurting anyone. Hitler because he had as much influence, although of an evil sort, through his ideas, which meant misery and destruction for millions.
C.P. SNOW, British author: I don't believe much in great leaders. Great leaders emerge from circumstances and normally don't create them. Very occasionally one or two produce a difference. If Lenin had not existed, it is hard to see how the Russian Revolution could have succeeded. Further back, Augustus Caesar brought order out of chaos and created the imperial peace.
WILLIAM IRWIN THOMPSON, U.S. historian-mystic: Gandhi. For a society to be healthy, it must seek centers of authority and leadership that do not necessarily derive from political or economic power but from cultural and spiritual values as well. Mao recognized this; he did try to give up his power and lead through the authority of his Little Red Book—but he abandoned this effort because of the chaos that resulted from the Cultural Revolution.