Charisma

[flexibeast]

Recently i watched The life of Brian with sacred_harlot (i'd seen it before; sacred_harlot hadn't.) It made me think: what makes a person charismatic, the sort of person other people follow with enthusiasm? The sort of person whose followers talk about in reverential tones? The sort of person whose followers are afraid of angering or upsetting? The sort of person whose followers believe is the person to lead them on The True Path to whateverness?

On-line and off-, i'm as charismatic as a brick. And that's fine with me. i would hope that, if people think i have anything interesting to say, it's purely because of the content of what i say, and not also, or purely, because i exude charisma à la Saruman¹. Nevertheless, charisma intrigues me because so many social movements have been led by 'charismatic' people.

So is charisma an innate either/or thing (i.e. "you have it, or you don't")? Is it something that can be cultivated? It is basically an unconscious, or semi-conscious, use of certain forms of magick? Or is it something else altogether?

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1. Tolkien wrote that:

Saruman's voice was not hypnotic but persuasive. Those who listened to him were not in danger of falling into a trance, but of agreeing with his arguments, while fully awake. It was always open to one to reject, by free will and reason, both his voice while speaking and its after-impressions. Saruman corrupted the reasoning powers.
 
-- "Letters", letter number 210

Comments

[cheshire-bitten.livejournal.com]

I would like to be more than I am but social groups interest me and I am very interested in what the people who have charisma do differently than everyone else. I am not really vain enough to say that I am one of those people, but I do make friends easily and seem to have little problem attracting peoples attentions(both sexual and not) but I wonder how much this has to do with charisma and how much it has to do with being “hot” by the current social standards.

The things which I have seen so far which seem to coincide with charisma are attributes such as self control and a feeling of “soft” self worth, these people have known that they are worth while and haven’t felt the need to rub it into anyone else.

[flexibeast.livejournal.com]

Hmm, interesting . . . . although personally, i have met people who others seem to find 'charismatic' and yet who come across as arrogant jerks to me. *shrug*

And yes, to me, at least, 'charisma' and 'attractiveness' are not the same thing, although there can certainly be a fair amount of overlap. i know a number of people who i find very attractive, and yet who don't seem to be regarded by either myself or others as 'charismatic' . . . .