ABSTRACT
The term charisma will be applied to a certain quality of an individual personality by virtue of which he is considered extraordinary and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities. In its full sense, charisma refers to a dimension of leadership beyond heroism in the sense of a merely human capacity for independent, energetic action, and beyond the human virtues of courage and honour. The fascination exerted by men thought to be endowed with supernatural or superhuman qualities has been at the heart of some of the most frightening developments in twentieth-century political life, and there have been numerous efforts to elucidate the relationship between totalitarianism and charismatic authority. The nationalistic nature of the cult remains in some ways an awkward impediment, since the Mexicans do not strike Lawrence as altogether promising material being, in his view, recalcitrant, resentful, lacking in energy, life-hating, destructive.
