Alcibiades From Plutarch's Lives: Article Analysis

The most thought provoking text for me this semester was the chapter on Alcibiades from Plutarch’s Lives. From reading about, and discussing, the life of the ancient Greek war-hero, I was provoked to question what people look for in their leader, and what exactly makes a leader “good”.
To spare no sentiment, Alcibiades, by today’s standards, appears to be downright crazy. He frequently was involved in physical altercations in which he would intentional injury others, often times without being provoked. He showed up at a man’s house fully unclothed asking to be “chastised”, and he even once cut off a dog’s tail. Furthermore, by leaving the Athenians to lead their rival, the Spartans, before eventually returning to Athens, Alcibiades proved to be an egotistical craver of attention, willing to manipulate and betray people’s trust to get what was best for himself. Overall, Alcibiades conducted himself in such a …show more content…
Although it is on a less extreme level, it was mentioned that some of the great business leaders of today such as Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, displayed cruelty and disregard for others on their way to achieving success for themselves. One of my takeaways from this was that perhaps, in order to become a successful leader as Alcibiades did, it is necessary to be willing to compromise on some moral values, and to have a certain amount of selfishness. This idea appears to make sense when you think of the fact that a position of power will be more of an attraction for certain types of people, the type of people who crave recognition and having things their way. Maybe to be a successful leader it is even necessary to be somewhat of an egoist and to have a ,“succeed at all cost”, type of mentality. Whatever the reason, Alcibiades certainty brought to my attention a pattern of leaders being brash and