Voldemort's charisma (FFW from OT, was: Intrinsically Good magic)

[Grey Wolf]

No: HPFGUIDX 59250

> Voldy is not a very rousing leader. Often evil 
> leaders through history have been inspiring, and have commanded the 
> kind of respect (and fear, granted) that promotes sacrifice and even 
> life-debts. But the minute Voldy is gone, the fear, his sole tool of 
> office, is gone too.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Dumbledad.

I picked this comment by Dumbledad on OT chatter and, since we've 
already carried over the original post to here, I thought I might bring 
this one too.

It is an interesting thought: is fear of Voldemort really all that ties 
the DEs together? I have trouble believing this. Fear is built over 
time. For people to fear Voldemort, he must have made himself famous by 
commiting attrocities. Now, We don't really know much of how 
Voldemort's reign of terror started, but I don't think he just arrived 
one day, started killing muggles and all the DEs, like Lucius, suddenly 
were trembling in terror and thus joined.

The thing is, Lucius has never striked me as the sort to be a follower 
unless there is big advantage in the near future. Voldemort surely 
promises in the GG that loyal followers will be rewarded, just as Peter 
was given his new shiny hand. AND Voldemort, when still Tom Riddle, was 
a likable guy, by all accounts. Dumbledore describes him as "clever, 
handsome boy who was once Head Boy" (PoA, ch. 18, Br. Ed.). That, to 
me, certainly sounds charismatic. Then, by Riddle's own account (which 
is open to suspicion, of course), I got the impression that he had 
almost all the teachers neatly tied around his little finger (except 
Dumbledore himself, who never trusted him after the CoS events of 
Riddle's time).

No, all in all, I think that Voldemort can be an ingratiating fellow 
when he wants to. Of course, he promises things that will attract the 
sort of people he needs for his DEs: power, dominion, immortality and 
who knows what else. But my point is that he uses more than just fear. 
Fear is a very unstable emotion, which easily lends itself to traition. 
And yet the DEs come back as soon as Voldemort demonstrates power once 
more. Probably because they do believe in his promises. If they only 
feared him, they could run to the MoM, or even plot amongst themselves 
to destroy him. But he holds over them promises that they're willing to 
go for. And promises are believed only if the one that makes it is a 
charismatic guy, just like evil (and non-evil) leaders are.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf, who meant vermillion in an earlier post, not bermellon. He 
seems to have confused the two words and ended posting his own 
language's version of it.