From the Latin charisma and originating from a Greek word that means “to please”, the term charisma refers to the ability of certain people to attract and captivate others. A charismatic subject manages to arouse the admiration of others easily and naturally.
According to DigoPaul, charisma is something innate and is part of the personality of the human being. It is a capacity that is associated with success, which is based on the conception that the charismatic does well in life. That is why there are those who claim that a person can be helped to be charismatic by strengthening their self-esteem, their abilities as a public speaker and their appearance.
The sociologist Max Weber considered that charisma allows to exercise a form of power. Citizens notice an extraordinary personality in the charismatic leader and allow themselves to be led by him. This type of leadership enabled Adolf Hitler, for example, to build his leadership and exercise power in a destructive and unreasonable way.
The vast majority of leaders have a special charisma, beyond their intellectual or professional merits; Thanks to this, they have the power to gather their followers and make them comply with their wishes or, at least, believe their words.
The counterpart of a charismatic person is an individual who cannot connect with other living beings, be they humans or animals, and who holds a deep resentment against the former for monopolizing the attention that, in his opinion, corresponds to himself. In almost every relatively large group of people, both roles tend to exist and, as might be expected, the relationship that is created between them is intense and dangerous.
Envy is the first concept that comes to mind when studying the behavior of individuals who lack charisma; They tend to see the leader as a being little prepared, without enough talent to exercise that role that the rest of the members of the group have assigned him so unfairly. They live this feeling in a very tortuous way, since they cannot stop thinking that they should receive the attention of others, that their throne has been taken from them.
Closely linked to envy is the feeling of humiliation, the idea that everyone is aware of the thoughts of the non-charismatic being and that they are laughing behind his back for his failure. This conjunction of sensations is a dangerous formula that results in frustration and a thirst for revenge, a revenge that only makes sense in the mind of the person affected and that sees no moral limits.
In human history there are plenty of stories of people envious of the power and success of others, who have done everything possible to bring them down and take away their leadership positions. Othello, one of Shakespeare’s masterpieces, masterfully and unforgettably tells a chilling story that revolves around the desire to possess the alien; There are probably no more impressive paintings than the acts of this jewel of English literature, which increase in intensity until they leave the viewer as devastated and desolate as the protagonist himself.
On a day-to-day basis, it is difficult to find a plot as ruthless as Othello’s, but certainly there are many cold-blooded plans that have the objective of dethroning the leaders, exposing them and showing that they do not deserve what they have achieved; However, no matter how far envy may go, it will never be able to gain charisma.
For religion, the charism is a gift that God grants, through the Holy Spirit, to some believers for the benefit of the community. Charismatic movements, like Pentecostalism, have a mission to help build the Christian community.
