I was talking with my kid about somebody being "charismatic". She wasn't sure what it meant so I used a dictionary. That led me to the word "charm". So I looked that up too. Merriam Webster has for "charm":
1a: to affect by or as if by magic : COMPELb: to please, soothe, or delight by compelling attractioncharms customers with his suave manner
I was surprised to see that it's about magic.
But I guess I shouldn't be surprised. People often say things like "love is magical".
I see liking magic as a bad thing. Magic is fake. So if someone wants magical things, I think that means he dislikes real things that compete with it. So saying "love is magical" is like saying "love is unreasonable".
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke
ReplyDeleteI also think that Clarke's 2nd rule is relevant to overreaching.
"The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke%27s_three_laws
And so magic can be a catch-all for things which we don't fully understand. Regarding "charisma" or "charm" - I can't help but think about "How to Win Friends and Influence People" - and hypnotism/mesmerism in general.