alexander

140 THE WISDOM OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT
Perception is the cognitive battle. Symbols are an essential
tool to manipulating perception. Symbols can win a battle.
Symbols are a leader’s most important perceptual implement.
With them, you can change the world.
Of course, you carefully consider the symbols you use
consciously. But are you aware of the symbols you use inadvertently?
I once dealt with a small family business where
the management team sat in carpeted and air-conditioned
splendor while the hourly people sweltered on the shop
floor without so much as a fan for ventilation. Any attempts
to ask the union to make concessions in such a symbolically
charged atmosphere were doomed.
Gandhi used symbols more effectively than almost any
leader of modern times. For example, he led the Salt March,
gathering followers along the route as he trekked day after
day, arriving with an audience of many thousands. He then
took ocean water, boiled it, put the residue salt in a paper
envelope, and sold it at auction. At the completion of the
transaction, he and the highest bidder were arrested by British
authorities and jailed for violating the British monopoly
on the manufacture and sale of salt. This event, a symbolic
affair of the utmost impact, initiated the failed attempt to
occupy nonviolently the Dharasana Salt Works. The attempt
resulted in hundreds of pacifist Indians being beaten
by armed guards, while the ‘‘besiegers’’ did not raise a hand.
It was the end of Europe’s moral suasion in India. The expulsion
of the British was won symbolically.