Verbatim quote · defining passage

“This is the point of Philip Rieff’s notion of “charisma”: the magnetic effect of a display of deferral and discipline beyond the capacity of the onlooker, in which one oscillates between exploiting the “leader”’s vulnerability and taking him as a model for engaging one’s own inner scene (an inner scene revealed for the first time through the example of the charismatic).”

— Adam Katz, A Kind of Apocalyptic Politics · Jan 2016 · GABlog