National Culinary Review

ran award-winning kitchens in Chicago and Prince Edward Island, Canada, then opted out of what he calls “the rat race.” De Melogue defies categorization, but he does admit, “I think having French lineage also makes me have a slightly more rebellious attitude toward authority.” He is currently working for Claudia Springs Winery, Philo, Calif., where he is jack-of-all-trades, involved in winemaking, wine sales and marketing. Someday he hopes to own land, raise crops and animals and open a guerrilla restaurant.

“Unfortunately, I never was very successful at dealing with authority. My greatest weapon was the ability to walk away with little regret from situations that did not fit my belief pattern,” he says.

But not every rebel is condemned to eternal damnation in the quest to do it “my way.” Replaying a former situation, de Melogue explains, “My boss said the job was crisis management. I said it was being creative. When we didn’t agree, I walked away. Now I see his position—and agree with André Soltner that chefs are both craftsmen and soup merchants.”

Followers

While rebels who never develop self-
understanding are problematic to
themselves and others, not everyone who
looks like a rebel is one. Lots of people
take on the social role of rebel without
really wanting to defy authority, Mayer
explains. Some may act rebellious to
attract friends or to seem more appealing,
or to fit in with other (pretend) rebels,
rendering them less like rebels and more
like followers.

From the beginning of time, people have needed to belong to groups to gain protection and strength from the power in numbers. Still, working with and/or leading followers is no easy task, either. Back in the 1960s, Harvard University professor Abraham Zaleznik determined that while some folks follow to gain certainty and security, others follow to control their bosses. Then again, while some followers are perfect lieutenants eager to implement the imperatives of their bosses, others will only go with the flow. And the dark side of following is truly chilling. Some followers are so mesmerized by the pull of authority that they will refuse to violate the rules of their leaders, even when it involves cruelty and injustice, according to work done in the 1960s by Yale University social psychologist, Stanley Milgram.

Then again, followers don’t only take orders from leaders. They also follow the group, which could result in grave distortions in perceptions and truth. In a famous study by Harvard University professor Solomon Asch, a majority of people agreed that two lines were equal in length when clearly they weren’t, causing the only person who was not in on the deception to defy his own perceptions and agree that an unequal line was equal, because he feared going against the group. In other words, if 10 people smell the fish and say it’s good, the 11th may know it’s spoiled, but not say anything.

Even worse, the urge to conform to the group is so powerful, as Berns explains in Iconoclast, it can even cause some people’s brains to play tricks on them so they can agree to things they initially perceived as wrong. Fear can change perception.

In the end, we all try to survive and thrive in an animal kingdom where our thoughts and actions may be different (or the same, for different reasons). We are great. We are noble. We are scared. We are troubled. And above all else, being human, it’s hard to figure us out. As writer Paul Valéry knew, human beings “are infinitely more complicated” than their thoughts.

Still, in our quest to stay on key and find workplace harmony, we do have a mighty tuning fork: our understanding of where we find power and how we respond to rules.