The Myth of the Self-Made Man
In Conversation with Christian Monjou.
Christian Monjou, a former researcher and lecturer at Oxford University, Fondation Besse laureate, and professor of Anglo-Saxon civilisations at the École Normale Supérieure de la rue d'Ulm and the Lycée Henri IVin Paris, is an international speaker for numerous companies. He uses art (visual arts, theatre, opera) to discuss management and leadership issues such as strategy design, innovation, positive competition, relationships with others, and cross-cultural relations. He also organises an annual cycle of public conferences with the cultural association “Le Visible & L’Invisible.”
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To cut through the noise of the US presidential election, we turned to Christian Monjou. His analysis of candidates’ leadership style through the lens of the self-made man myth reveals the deeper implications of this historical event: the outcome will shape America’s capacity to redefine its identity and uphold its fading moral leadership.
The Sky is the Limit
Donald Trump restless attempts to portray himself as a self-made man, a fact debunked by his niece in her book “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” is a tribute to the importance of this myth in the American psyche.
As Christian highlights, Trump has been leveraging traditional symbols of success for a long time. A notable example is the Trump Tower, his skyscraper at the corner of Central Park on Fifth Avenue. In building this landmark, Trump follows in the footsteps of the magnates of the early twentieth century, such as Carnegie, Woolworth, or Frick, whose notable buildings helped shape New York’s architecture at the time.
In the election, this allows him to run as “the outsider,” a popular figure challenging the establishment—particularly the Democratic liberal elite of the Northeast, with whom Trump has clashed for much of his life.
However, Trump’s leadership claim is divisive as it plays on American sectionalisms. What was initially a North-South divide has evolved into an East-West split that now also revolves around coastal urban centres on the one hand and central rural states on the other. This strategy helps explain Trump’ success in southern states still recovering from the legacy of Lost Cause, where Vice President Kamala Harris is viewed as the anathema.
To wit, Trump’s strategy helps him build a base of voters far away from his core, including in more religious states. As Christian reminds us, in American popular culture, the figure of the outsider is often embodied by the lonesome cowboy. Ironically, Donald Trump, who has faced multiple allegations of sexual harassments, can paradoxically appear as “the man without women” and reframe his moral shortcomings as a show of character.
While the virtue of myths is to provide clarity, Trump manipulates them to create confusion at his own benefit. His choice of JD Vance as running mate is an attempt to merge the frustrations of destitute blue collars communities from the Great Lakes and the Appalachian (“elegiac hillbillys”) with the resistance of the rural and agrarian Midwest to regulations (particularly environmental policies) threatening their business models and ways of life. Christian argues that similar to trends happening in other Western countries, Trump’s base is built off the powerful contrast between those from “somewhere” and those from “anywhere”, i.e., the coastal globalised urban centres.
Recently, Donald Trump’s hijack of foundational myths was further validated by Elon Musk’s endorsement. In many ways, Musk embodies the new version of the self-made man archetype: being one himself, hailing from the West Coast (rather than the northeast), amassing his fortune in tech (rather than traditional industries), and now literally reaching for the stars (beyond the skyscrapers).
A Leadership to Seize.
Kamala Harris, as the sitting Vice President and until recently largely operating in the shadow, is now also leveraging the self-made myth to quickly build her brand.
As Christian points out, her platform echoes the causes of famous community leaders such as Harriet Tubman, an escaped slave who established the Underground Railroad to save others, or Sojourner Truth, who challenged the government in granting women the right to vote. Similarly, Harris now challenges the government’s legitimacy over women’s body.
Having risen from a struggling middle-class herself, Harris is working to bridge American sectionalism across its blend of old and new divisive lines (particularly race, gender, and now climate change). She aims to uplift impoverished Americans by setting the example of how ambition and hard work can lead to success and social mobility.
Harris also benefits from the aura of other past and present alternatives, in a healthy balance to masculine leadership, such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Michelle Obama, who both skilfully leveraged their roles as First Ladies to advocate causes of their own. The enthusiasm she aroused is reminiscent of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, twice a widow, raising as an independent icon after being subject to male dominance in her two marriages.
Yet, Christian argues, one of Kamala Harris’ greatest challenges is to establish a new benchmark for leadership, similar to the precedent set by Barack Obama in 2008. As the potential first women president and the first with a background as a first-generation immigrant, with both her parents being born outside of the United States, she faces the task of redefining what it means to lead at the highest level.
More subtly, in conjunction with President Joe Biden’s historic decision not to seek a second mandate, after a term that started with the Capitol insurrection by pro-Trump supporters, the election of Kamala Harris could contribute to reconciling America with itself. Her Kairos, or her ability to seize this unexpected opportunity successfully, while balancing a decidedly conversative Supreme Court with three Trump appointees, could be an achievement comparable to that of Abraham Lincoln.
Indeed, Christian reminds that Lincoln came to power without being groomed for it, amidst the civil war. Unfortunately, Lincoln as a potential tutelary figure is out-of-reach for Harris, as its symbolical power is unparalleled and uniquely his own, akin to George Washington’s.
Tocqueville in Question
The state of the world in 2024 and the profound divide undermining America’s leadership calls for an exceptional president, just like Theodore Roosevelt was in the early 1900s, as he established the dominance of the United States for the twentieth century.
In some ways, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are inheriting the remnants of his legacy. The former claims to challenge the ruling capitalistic elite, despite embodying it himself, in a way reminiscent of Roosevelt’s trust-bashing. Meanwhile, the latter is almost in the position Roosevelt was when he acceded to power, serving as the VP to President William McKinley who died before the end of his term.
Christian highlights the deep stakes underlying the election, noting that American identity is continuously being redefined and that movement and change remain at the core of the American collective journey.
Hence, Kamala Harris’s election would realign the US with its leadership’s centre of gravity, acknowledging the importance of the West Coast, cultural diversity, and a globalised technological economy. In contrast, Trump’s election would further shift it away from its core, while perversely pretending to do the contrary. The consequences are dire from a cultural standpoint, contrasting selfish leadership (Trump) with self-less leadership (Biden), opinions (Trump) with method (Harris), and denial with self-actualisation.
The outcome of the election, Christian concludes, will either prove Tocqueville right—democracy, for all its flaws, is the most effective form of government because leaders like Harris can rise to save it from itself—or split the bait on him if Trump manages to sabotage the system for his own interest.
Leadership in chaos or leadership in Kairos: Americans will have to decide.
Interview by Baptiste Raymond, 09/2024.