Thursday, August 20, 2020

Charisma/Charm

I've always heard the words "charisma" and "charming" used in ways that I thought was seen (by the people saying these words) as a good characteristic of a person.

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 : COMPEL
b: to please, soothe, or delight by compelling attraction 
charms 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".

1 comment:

  1. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke

    I 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.

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