Farming aura: when looking powerful matters as much as being powerful

Farming aura has become a digital-culture expression for the deliberate, almost theatrical construction of charisma, confidence, style or social presence before an audience. Put simply, it means accumulating "points" of perception by doing things that make us seem interesting, strong or admirable to others. The concept was born in gamer culture and now forms part of the vocabulary of digital "hikikomoris".

Politics has been farming aura for decades. Venezuela is a revealing case in this regard, since its history has been marked by personalism, charismatic leadership and the construction of figures capable of embodying in themselves an idea of the country. Academic literature has studied precisely how Venezuelan politics came to concentrate enormous symbolic weight in certain leaders and how, in the case of Hugo Chávez, the perception of charisma had a particularly strong relationship with the political identification of his followers.

How much political power resides really in the capacity to govern, and how much in the capacity to look powerful? A politician may have resources, institutions and decision-making capacity yet lack presence. Another may have limited resources and nonetheless project a sense of stability and authority capable of mobilizing thousands of people. Aura does not replace power, but it can become one of its instruments.

Societies do not react only to government programs, figures or rational proposals; they also react to symbols, emotions, narratives and people. The leader who manages to embody a collective aspiration stops being simply an individual and begins to become a political signifier, someone in whom part of society places its expectations, frustrations, hopes and even its own identity. Our region has examples of this: Javier Milei, Nayib Bukele, Abelardo de la Espriella, Donald Trump.

This helps explain why charisma can survive even when management results are poor or begin to deteriorate. One study on Chávez precisely found the dynamic relationship between the perception of charisma and the assessment of performance. Poor performance could erode charisma, but the persistence of charismatic perception could also influence the way citizens assessed the country's conditions. Put more simply: first the perception is built, and then that perception can begin to modify the reality people believe they are seeing.

Social networks have taken this logic to another level. The politician no longer controls only his speech or an official photograph. Every gesture can become content: how he walks into a room, how he answers a question, how he faces a crisis, what clothes he wears, who he appears with, how calm he seems under pressure and conflict. Politics has always competed for attention, and even more so in a hyperconnected, fast-moving world oversaturated with information, whether real or generated by artificial intelligence.

The politician who desperately tries to show he is strong may end up looking weak. The one who constantly needs to explain that he is popular or that he is the "leader" may convey insecurity. The one who seeks to demonstrate authority may end up revealing that he needs to be recognized as an authority. All of this is perceived and sensed, like a perfume. On that basis, one could say that "aura" works precisely when it seems natural.

Real communicative power does not consist solely of speaking louder, but of getting others to spontaneously attribute certain qualities to the leader, such as security, competence, courage or intelligence. In our country, chavismo spent years making presidential communication and the figure of the leader central elements of its political strategy, and the study of personality was a key point for reinforcing the bond between the president and his followers. Nothing in this regard was random or improvised. Did Chávez farm aura? Yes, and considerably, but he was not the only one.

The new generations are changing the rules of the game. It is no longer enough to fill a square; one must fill the algorithm. It is no longer sufficient to have a historic photograph; one must produce images that can become symbols, memories and narratives that reach deep into the mind, are remembered, shape thinking, direct emotion, and influence personality and social behavior. "Farming aura" serves as a metaphor for explaining contemporary politics and this aggressive era of rapid change.

In politics, the one with more power does not always win; sometimes it is whoever manages to make others believe they have it. This is perhaps one of the most important battles in Venezuela: the struggle between real power and staged power, between leaders and personalities, authority and appearance.