Word: aura
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Eisenhower privately explained his method in words we may eventually learn that Powell too has used among friends. A potential candidate, said Ike, needs to retain an "aura of mystery" about his future. "The seeker," he astutely observed, "is never so popular as the sought. People want what they think they can't get." Embracing detailed positions, Ike added, would "alienate more strength than it would develop." Specifics, he said, should be avoided for as long as possible: "A premature consumption of all the ammunition in a battle is certain to bring defeat." Or, as Powell puts it near...
Sure the salaries bankers and traders made are astronomical, the work-hours never end and the office watering hole's beers cost $5, but what shocked me most in this world of the "Masters of the Universe" (to borrow a phrase from Tom Wolfe) was the aura that surrounded all of it. Quite simply, the entire culture displayed a male-dominated character which exceeded anything I had imagined or even believed possible...
Rhythm is the dominating factor of Mum and Shah; the characters speak in poetry and move in dance. Even the music and the lighting help sustain the cadence. The audience is lulled into the performance's magic and dreamlike aura...
...Kirov's artistic focus seems insecure, even wayward. In the decades when such companies as the Kirov and the Bolshoi were rarely glimpsed, they had a potent aura of mystery. Classical ballet and the music of Tchaikovsky were, after all, their heritage. When a Nureyev or a Baryshnikov fled the country, people imagined that the Kirov was full of such melancholy geniuses. Now, with frequent touring, it is easy to decide for oneself the quality of the emperor's clothes...
When the shuttle bus arrived at the funeral home and the television cameras appeared, the comfortable aura in the shuttle disappeared...