Charisma

The end to a diversion.

Get It Try It

'Charisma' is Greek. 'χάρισμα'. Means someone with rock star quality.

People in the US need change - and instead are looking for someone with 'χάρισμα'. Lindsay Lohan is in and out of rehab; Britney Spears is screwed up; the rock scene itself has never been worse. And they've got no royalty. Talk about a cultural dilemma.

People in the US need change; they need to force through this change themselves - and as per usual are looking for someone to do this for them so they can go back to Monday Night Football, Lost, and Fox News.

And how do they choose their outsourced civil servant? By 'χάρισμα'. They want someone who's 'inspiring'. That's a latin/French/middle English word meaning 'stimulating'.

Charisma doesn't clean up the slums. It doesn't bring troops home and prevent them from being deployed again. It doesn't weed out the predator sector. It doesn't force through universal health care. It doesn't get rid of the fanatical fundamentalist wacko christian right. It doesn't provide job security.

Charisma doesn't yank you out of the middle ages. All it does is preserve the status quo.

Clue: most political leaders in most countries are not charismatic. Clue: in most countries political aspirants debate actual issues. Often on the economy. Clue: they're boring. Painfully hopelessly boring. Final clue: most people wouldn't want it any other way.

They don't need some idiot with charisma. You can buy and manufacture charisma. It's done all the time. Big PR firms specialise in it. It's all bullshit and most peoples in most countries don't like bullshit.

They want people - idiots even - who can get the job done.

But not in the US. People in the US want a 'leader'. A 'leader' who 'inspires'. A leader with 'χάρισμα'. Give them a break: this is what they want and they deserve to get it.

This is the end to a diversion. There's only so much outsiders can say about what's going wrong right now in the US. Save for that final reminder 'not in our back yard'.

For it's all there - as Sheryl Crowe said on more than one occasion: 'do your own research'. Except the people in the US never get that far. 'Read? Research? Are you kidding? Lost comes on in twenty minutes!'

'We've got it pretty good here. I got a good job. I don't have health care. And I don't have job security. And we're pretty close to getting kicked out of our house because the mortgage keeps going up. But what can anyone do? Best to not worry about it.'

Come June and come again November: toss a coin. Is this a day you go out to the polls? Or is it a day with good reruns on the telly?

And if you go then pick a leader with 'χάρισμα'. You should make it back in time for the ten o'clock news.