Charisma: What Is

[sparklebutch]

I propose that we avoid any tendency to view charisma as an objective essence that is found or absent in a person. Charisma is a property or energy associated with certain people by others. In the absence of an audience, there is no charisma, and not all audiences are sensitive to the same charisma. People who are amazingly influential with one group would be subject to scorn in another group. In other words, charisma is a dialogue. Those ascribed with it do something that the group forcefully responds to, but in the absence of a group to respond, nurture and nourish it, there can be no existence to the relationship we refer to as charisma. The exact nature of this property, this energy that people purport to identify remains unclear. The content changes with circumstances: exceptional courage, self-confidence that instils confidence in others, a sense that the person is in direct contact with god (the word stems from the Greek word charis–grace/favour).

Fra Ginepro's Leg of Pork/Aviad Kleinberg
Translation by ceruleancat