ive always been fascinated by charisma. what makes people charismatic? cuz in the end, it’s charisma that steals the show. not eloquence, not righteousness, not ethics. just charisma.

my gut says, polishing words takes away from charisma. you mention authenticity being a bit at opposite ends with eloquence as far as perception is concerned. very interesting point. i wonder if it’s because eloquence is elitist? (and i don’t mean just using big words)

i think passion needs to be in there in the equation. when passion shows thru in the speech, that’s when it starts grabbing people. i wonder if passion can be emulated.

i know this was not the scope nor the intent of your post.. but that’s the beauty of public posting of random thoughts. we can use them as stepping stones to more generalized applications!

Well, there’s a certain amount of self-selection going on here, i.e., people who are obsessed with words will gravitate towards careers and companies that reward such an obsession. I don’t consider this particular Dec 3, 2008 post to be of general interest… more just my own little reflective moment.

As for the effect of “polishing our eloquence” I see that as a process of continuous improvement…. sharpening the saw, as the expression goes. You ask whether that takes something away from our “original self.” I was going to say no, but ya know, I wonder, is our “orignal self” inarticulate? Well, yeah, fo’shure. Authenticity is a highly prized trait in our society, and ineloquence is a close cousin to authenticy.

You can see this at play wherever marketing collides with online social media… whether in the most furtive of sockpuppets or the most well-meaning self-promoting marketing consultants. Like those highly polished Facebook status updates or Twittering Twits who never ever post anything except professional-related, PR-worthy statements.

Offline, you can sometimes feel this with people who never use contractions in their written words (tho sometimes it’s a sign of insanity) or with people who don’t have even a teenie weenie bit of filler language in their, uh, speech. Righly or wrongly, that which is flawed or rustic is often seen as genuine.

Merci, mon bon frère, for provoking such wonderful dialogue. But now I must go foux-de-fa-fa a-la discotheque…

i read all this.. yet i can’t help but think of good old “we shape our tools as our tools shape us” (mcluhen, ur such a groovy thinker)

how does this tool shape us?

what kind of an effect does the technical polishing of our eloquence have on us? does it take away something from our original self? in other words, does the constant pursuit of the “mot juste” invariably lead to an “esprit d’escalier”?