Reflections on "Establishing Ideas as Sound"

On Charisma

Charisma is associated with a capacity to influence and inspire. It is located within the Taxonomy in the Tree of Good and Evil—on the evil side.

Naming:  Charisma is sometimes perceived or described as allure, animal magnetism, appeal, attractiveness, captivation, charm, enchantment, fascination, a force field, glamour, magic, magnetism, oomph, pizzazz, seductiveness, witchery, sorcery.

Charisma over-rides rational thought and assessment. The charismatic person is endowed with leadership qualities and the capacity to see what others don't. Others seek to get close to the charismatic person and tend to identify or imitate as a way of doing so.

So charisma is not about doing...it is about communicating, and getting people to accept your ideas as valid, at least for the brief period during an interaction. (If others do not believe and follow, it means charisma is not working.) Once you are viewed as an exceptional person with exceptional powers, you can affect how the group thinks and sees, often against their own will.

This degree of power raises issues and is dangerous because it can vitiate selflessness and disrupt impartiality. Charismatics often end up being denounced and vilified.

Individuals who are naturally charismatic feel emotions and induce emotions in others, while tending to be impervious to other charismatic individuals. They often effortlessly embody contradictory qualities simultaneously e.g.: strength + vulnerability, innocence + experience, singularity + typicality.

ClosedLearning to be Charismatic? 

Probably everyone has access to charisma in principle, but rather few do so in practice. A charisma-like state, can be cultivated to some degree by focusing on key elements like:

  • Intense passionate self-confidence: assertively presenting ideas as convictions.
  • Being clear, fluent, forceful, articulate, witty, and using emotive imagery.
  • Focusing attention on another and listening well, with supportive body language
  • Exuding strength, power, and warmth while making the audience feel special.

More Notes

Attitudes: If you are disagreeable, obnoxious, aggressive, or offensive, then your ideas are unlikely to go down well even if anodyne. If your account is unwanted, then there is no hope of getting the message across.

Futurology: While many now make a living out of forecasting social systems (as distinct from data-based events like eclipses), those forecasts seem to be far more often wrong than right. However, rejection is unlikely if an account emerges from a respected social body whose task is to produce such accounts.

Whistle-blowing: Whistle-blowers bring a message unacceptable to those in power because it reveals an activity or deception that is harmful. The issue is not whether their accounts are sound or beneficial, but whether those in power want to hear them.

Regulations to protect whistle-blowers can only be introduced by those in power, but it is inevitable that they have no wish or intention to act on them. Those in power are typically furious when exposed. Because everyone else involved feels dependent on those in power, the whistle-blower is generally avoided and rejected. Often their life is ruined. The selfless act proves self-destructive in this case.

Initially posted: 13-May-2014