Disraeli’s orientalized charisma won over a society that enjoyed being enchanted

Evidence

Politicians fell in love with the charlatan who transformed boring business transactions into dreams with an oriental flavor; and when society sensed an aroma of black magic in Disraeli’s shrewd dealings, the “potent wizard” had actually won the heart of his time. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 233

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘oriental flavor’ and ‘potent wizard’ tropes anticipate Said’s Orientalism — the exoticization of the Jew as oriental other within European society.
• SEED: Angle: how the charlatan-wizard figure lets a society enjoy its own enchantment while keeping the exotic figure at arm’s length — a mechanism of ambivalent inclusion that parallels the Muslim-in-Europe dynamic.