tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post6286601039913981216..comments2024-03-28T00:17:55.823+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: The nature of influenceBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-25397267010974936132013-01-11T17:33:02.071+00:002013-01-11T17:33:02.071+00:00My apologies for adding to this discussion long, l...My apologies for adding to this discussion long, long after the fact. Reading this post, it struck me that the purposive evil viewpoint has potential explanatory power in the question of what happened to Obama's charisma.<br /><br />Let's assume that if a person even nominally puts their faith in God and is not beset by temptations from a legion of tempters, they will quickly be led on the path towards spiritual development, and perhaps even sainthood. It takes copious efforts from the Junior Tempters in Screwtape's office to pervert God's creation as much as they do.<br /><br />Hence, all the coordinators of hell had to do was tell the rank-and-file staff in charge of Obama to ease up on his insecurities, for a while. The result was the sham-saint of the first election, a person of undeniable personal magnetism and charisma. After the election, of course, they had no further use for a President-saint, so they went back to their prior regime of temptation. Obama, lacking the hard-won spiritual discipline to oppose them, very quickly and very noticeably went back to being the strangely uninteresting man so well-documented by Steve Sailer.<br /><br />The best thing (from the Screwtapian perspective) about the sham-saint (as long as the demons don't let him off the hook too long and allow him to become the real thing) is that it is so difficult to detect the deception. Obama's oratory was the real deal. His charisma was not demonic, but came from his being (just like any man) in the image of God. That he was foolish enough to use this power for the presidency in the way he did, perhaps was the demonic thing. I do not know. It would have taken great wisdom to discern the precise mechanism during the actual election.<br /><br />I have no idea what it was the forces of Hell wanted with President Obama. He does not strike me as the worst candidate for the job, and I am scarcely qualified to pronounce a better candidate. Perhaps he was chosen as the most _disappointing_ to the largest amount of people -- promising enough to give the supporters high hopes, then continuing business as usual once actually elected. Perhaps political power was not the issue, and the Presidency was merely a side concern of some project merely meant to tempt a large number of people at once into the sin of idolatry. (Have you felt it, I wonder? When you confused an image of God, in some minuscule measure, with the real thing, and then found that your mind had actually closed around an emptiness? It's a disconcerting feeling to find that you've done it.)<br /><br />The only real reason I'm allowing myself to analyze Obama like this is because this theory illustrated a particular fact of life to me in a very sobering way. Namely, any sudden and unexplained rise in one's own charisma, or any other saintly quality, is something to be wary of. It might be a temporary respite meant to allow you to be a bad influence.Arakawahttp://arakawa.github.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-75313877472216327562011-09-23T23:12:37.321+01:002011-09-23T23:12:37.321+01:00"Few magnetic personalities persist today, an..."Few magnetic personalities persist today, and even those who are supposedly magnetic lose their “pull” quickly".<br /><br />Gustave Le Bon speaks of prestige (which means something like charisma in this context). Prestige means that the object of admiration ceases to come into question. He says that prestige won by success can easily be lost by a single prominent failure.<br /><br />As to the question of why Obama developed such prestige so quickly, and why all of a sudden it is falling away, one may need to study the ebb and flow of some other kind of field.<br /><br />If one studies society carefully one can see revealed the presence of different kind of fields. One of these is the phenomenon Robert Prechter (of Elliott Wave fame) speaks of as the social mood. He takes this single field to the limit of what makes sense and perhaps a little beyond, and it is by no means the only such field. But it is a very nice place to start because it is reflected in financial markets, for which a large amount of data are available, as well as developments in art, society, politics.Cantillonbloghttp://cantillonblog.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-70867322098159153912011-09-23T23:04:15.276+01:002011-09-23T23:04:15.276+01:00Napoleon Hill, in his book published after his dea...Napoleon Hill, in his book published after his death - Outwitting the Devil - speaks of the importance of having a strong set of goals and intentions to avoid getting caught up in what he called 'hypnotic rhythm' - something like the rapids of Niagara Falls which seem to draw the attention of the spectator and make him, against his will, jump to his death.Cantillonbloghttp://cantillonblog.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-63484951147191688792011-09-23T21:08:44.405+01:002011-09-23T21:08:44.405+01:00Is it a field that draws lemmings to their doom?
...Is it a field that draws lemmings to their doom? <br />Is it the ease of acting like other people act, that spells the demise of society? <br />Is it the mindless subscription to uniformity that can only end in the ruin of Europe? <br />I find my own life frequently difficult, in that whenever I encounter a field, I see at a glance, its alignment, polarity, and consequence. <br />If it ends badly - and I can see that future consequence - then I am unable to subscribe to it. <br />Most people, it would seem, are more than willing to go along with what everybody else is doing. <br />I am easily able to perceive the flow of life. <br />But equally able to perceive when the flow of human life is counter to that. <br />As in deep water sailing, it serves to stay away from counter-currents, if you have any hope of getting to where you had planned on going.The Crowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04323413604073160469noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-35016707430063797062011-09-23T17:56:37.532+01:002011-09-23T17:56:37.532+01:00@GR - I felt the same way, but then I realized my ...@GR - I felt the same way, but then I realized my thinking was being constrained by an unhelpful metaphor: Sheldrake supplied a good alternative. <br /><br />It was commenter Kristor who got me reading Sheldrake again, after a gap of a couple of decades. I'm very pleased he did!Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-67479991676434153712011-09-23T17:53:24.640+01:002011-09-23T17:53:24.640+01:00I was a little put off by the idea of explaining m...I was a little put off by the idea of explaining metaphysics with theoretical physics you mentioned earlier, but I think the field idea has merit as a model for social interaction. <br /><br />It fits well with ideas about subsidiarity and human scale society. Also highlights the importance of family as the primary field, which can keep you set straight if it is strong enough.Gabe Ruthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06958214257606957422noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-68295517984670142672011-09-23T15:51:26.347+01:002011-09-23T15:51:26.347+01:00Few magnetic personalities persist today, and even...Few magnetic personalities persist today, and even those who are supposedly magnetic lose their “pull” quickly. I watched, with alarm, the magnetic pull Obama had over college students and minorities in my country. Now, it’s mostly gone. His magnetic force seems spent. <br /> <br />What happened? Surely, Obama hasn’t changed – his rhetoric and demeanor are the same. Even his enthusiasm seems as fever-pitched as before, particularly at the last State of the Union address. And, similarly, American youth haven’t changed; they are as reckless and feckless as youth tend to be.<br /> <br />What changed is the response of the “cloud” that surrounds Obama, those most closely drawn to his magnetism: the media, legislators, bureaucrats and such. But then again, maybe this is wrong. The media are the holdouts, still enthralled by Obama. Ordinary people on the periphery of his magnetism – in this case, voters – were more quick to intuit that his magnetism was just that -- mere magnetism. The media haven’t figured this out … yet.<br /><br />As an aside, I find it curious that you stress the response and responsibiity of the magnetized, not the magnetizer. A person with a "magnetic personality" or field of force can willfully choose to exercise his magnetism in a moral and good manner, just as those under the spell of his magnetism are responsible for their behavior. Images of throngs of Germans saluting their dictator, or American youth and minorities swooning at the feet of Obama, are disconcerting, to say the least, but the responsibility to appropriately respond to magnetism, even our own, is universal. That’s the freewill argument in a nutshell; that we are responsible for our magnetism as well as our response to magnetism.<br /><br />I recently discovered your blog. Thank you for putting your thoughts to paper. I have benefitted greatly from you effort, Sir.<br /><br />Kristen from ColoradoAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-88938564153754818472011-09-23T15:10:09.544+01:002011-09-23T15:10:09.544+01:00"If you are alive you can resist the flow.&qu..."If you are alive you can resist the flow."<br /><br />True; but of course, you may die in the process.Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-40203823840424593412011-09-23T15:03:00.725+01:002011-09-23T15:03:00.725+01:00A Chesterton comment: "A dead thing can go w...A Chesterton comment: "A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it."<br /><br />Life is like a stream. If you are dead, you just submit to where it carries you.<br /><br />If you are alive you can resist the flow.The Continental Opnoreply@blogger.com