We've been talking about mules and goats, flags, and even videos as symbols. So what about people? Can they too be symbols? I suppose we should more specific and ask can they be condensation symbols, like the dominant symbols we have been discussing? It seems clear that historical figures become symbols in the basic sense of something that stands for something else. George Washington, for example, in many ways stands for the United States. He was the leader of the military efforts that freed the American colonies from Britain. And he was the countries first president. Every school child in the country learns about him, and his image is on American currency. The one dollar bill and also the quarter. There is even a prominent monument in the nation's capital, Washington DC dedicated to his memory, and of course, the Capital itself is named after him. However, to be a condensation symbol, George Washington would have to call our emotions. Does the figure of Washington actually do that? We would need to engage in further analysis. But I think we can make a pretty good argument, that he was in the past. And I should add here, that symbols, like the rest of culture are susceptible to change over time. In the last unit of this class, we'll be talking more about change and continuity. And the forces that are at work on the movement of culture, including the symbols. The argument for George Washington as a dominant symbol of America would go something like this. Washington is often called the Father of the Country, and he has been referred to as a father figure. This is actually not so different, when you stop to think about it, from the Andembol muji tree, which calls up feelings surrounding motherhood and nurturance. In Washington case, we are dealing not with motherhood but with fatherhood. We would want to take a look at the stories about Washington that are passed down as part of his memory. I think we would find evidence that he has been regarded as a strong, guiding presence during really uncertain and scary times. He led a military campaign against perhaps the greatest power on Earth at that time. And a successful outcome of the war was by no means a foregone conclusion. He and his troops endured hardships. But they persevered. He also guided the fledgling republic in its early days. We could go on, but I think you can see how George Washington, as a historical person, took on associations, especially as time wore on, that made him appear to be the kind of father we would all like to have had. Honest and true. Strong and knowing. Calm under fire. Capable of reassuring us that all will be well. I don't want to spend too much time on Washington. The point here is to rather to get you to think about people as dominant symbols of collectivities. We could perhaps look at Mahatma Gandhi in the case of India. His image too adorns money there. We can even look at Mao Zedong in China, whose image occurs on the currency of the People's Republic of China. Nor should we confine ourselves to the long deceased. Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple, even while he as alive, was a symbol of coolness, intelligence, technological sophistication, creativity even genius. His symbolic properties motivated numerous young people to desire to work for his company. Boy there's the power of culture for you. And it's the power of culture as radiating from an individual has the visionary leader of a team, Apple computer. And we shouldn't stop there. I think we can make a good case that every team leader, have smaller or large the team, has to be assembled, at least in some measure. Successful leaders will be able to call feelings in the members of their team, feelings that motivate them to contribute to the team's success. Indeed if you've been a team leader, there's pretty good chance that you've already been a condensation symbol for the team. Now, think about that.
