Athos Porthos Aramis
Wednesday, June 27 : 8:40 PM : 0 comments :
If you have any experience with AD&D, there was always one trait that seemed out of place: Charisma. Defined in AD&D terms as "An ability score representing a character's persuasiveness, personal magnetism, andability to lead." Doesn't seem that useful right? Wouldn't you rather have some crazy strength, amazing constitution, or outstanding intelligence? Charisma was the least useful attribute to have. Or so I thought.
Switch over to the real world -- and out of geekville. Charisma is just about the most important trait to have in life. Contrary to many of our every day encounters, it's hard to be an asshole in life. I mean, people who have no charisma have a rough go of it finding friends, dating, and heck, securing jobs. Okay, none of that is true. You can be totally charisma-less and do just fine in life.
However, if you do have excess amounts of charisma, you can certainly ascend to heights higher and faster than if you were left to your own paltry devices.
If people like you they'll be more likely to do, well, everything for you. Isn't that right? One of the main benefits of having charisma in the D&D world is to be able to generate extra "followers." This means that people like you so much they'll go the extra step and put their necks on the line for you. In roleplaying terms, it's a literal neck, since following somebody around means fighting alongside them, with a high chance of getting maimed or destroyed.
All the recent medieval guy movies like Braveheart, Gladiator, Troy, and 300 have that one moment when the hero steps in front of his men and gives them a rousing speech. People cheer, the enemy gets slaughtered, the movie gets panned. It's fabulous -- and highly memorable.
Now, for those of us without William Wallace-like presence, it helps to be able to persuade people through other means. Manipulating as it were. Men of action do; men of no-action, talk. Here's Aristotle's three ways to persuade people through the use of spoken (or written) language:
- Ethos is an appeal to authority. It is how well the speaker convinces the audience that he or she is qualified to speak on the particular subject.
- Pathos is an appeal to the audience's emotions. It can be in the form of metaphor, simile, a passionate delivery, or even a simple claim that a matter is unjust.
- Logos is logical appeal. It is normally used to describe facts and figures that support the speaker's topic. Since data is difficult to manipulate, especially if from a trusted source, logos may sway cynical listeners.
All three, used to complement each other, can be destructive in wearing down people's inhibitions or disbelief. Take, for example, Al Gore's recent Hollywood hit "An Inconvenient Truth." Gore has the charisma of a rock. Yet, there is no doubting that he's passionate and knowlegeable about global warming. Adding an extra bit of pathos in the form of cute polar bears running out of real estate was also pretty effective.So, once you've established your authority, your knowledge, and your passion about something, people tend to listen. Add in a touch of charm and people will line up to tune in. (Isn't that sort of like blogging?) That's how all the great leaders/orators of our time have convinced people to follow them -- Hitler and Co. down the line. Whether you use this persuasion power for good or evil is up to you, but Aristotle told us twenty-four hundred years ago how to do it. What will you use your words for?
