ABSTRACT
The thesis of this chapter is that the necessary elements of a charismatic leader can be increasingly faked through technological means. As such, charisma doesn’t need to be an inner quality of the pre-Christian era, nor a gift received in the Weberian sense, but simply a combination of money and media technology. Media can multiply images up to a tipping point where imitation, or mimesis, overtakes the impasse of modernity. As the current political leaders of the Western world seem to have appeared almost out of thin air, not as professional politicians but outsiders, the analysis of the gaining of power becomes crucial. To interpret the gaining of power of Silvio Berlusconi (1936–) and later of Matteo Salvini (1973–), the chapter compares them to Benito Mussolini (1883–1945), as he is widely recognised as a leader who possessed charisma, and is well known for his use of media and technology. Berlusconi and Salvini have done very little for governing Italy; instead, they repeat the mechanisms of gaining power each time they lose to a coalition of professional politicians. Their unprecedented solution is to expose their private lives on the public stage, a practice which suspends discussion and thinking, as the overabundance of images and words leaves the public wondering on what is real and what is not.
