From last year’s post on MLK’s Drum Major Instinct speech:
The drum major instinct is real. (Yes!) And you know what else it causes to happen? It often causes us to live above our means. (Make it plain!) It’s nothing but the drum major instinct. Do you ever see people buy cars that they can’t even begin to buy in terms of their income? (Amen!) [laughter] You’ve seen people riding around in Cadillacs and Chryslers who don’t earn enough to have a good T-Model Ford. (Make it plain!) But it feeds a repressed ego. …
The drum major instinct can lead to exclusivism in one’s thinking and can lead one to feel that because he has some training, he’s a little better than that person who doesn’t have it. Or because he has some economic security, that he’s a little better than that person who doesn’t have it. And that’s the uncontrolled, perverted use of the drum major instinct.
Still good advice.