Hoffer's True Believer

[Skull]

Another edition of Eric Hoffer's The True Believer, Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements came out this year. Since 1951 it has always been in print. Considering the mass rioting recently, it is a work worthy of study. Here is a little from his Preface:

This book deals with some peculiarities common to all
mass movements, be they religious movements, social revolutions
or nationalist movements. It does not maintain that all
movements are identical, but that they share certain essential
characteristics which give them a family likeness.

All mass movements generate in their adherents a readiness
to die and a proclivity for united action; all of them, irrespective
of the doctrine they preach and the program they project,
breed fanaticism, enthusiasm, fervent hope, hatred and intolerance;
all of them are capable of releasing a powerful flow of
activity in certain departments of life; all of them demand blind
faith and singlehearted allegiance.

All movements, however different in doctrine and aspiration,
draw their early adherents from the same types of humanity;
they all appeal to the same types of mind.

Though there are obvious differences between the fanatical
Christian, the fanatical Mohammedan, the fanatical nationalist,
the fanatical Communist and the fanatical Nazi, it is yet true
that the fanaticism which animates them may be viewed and
treated as one. The same is true of the force which drives them
on to expansion and world dominion. There is a certain uniformity
in all types of dedication, of faith, of pursuit of power,
of unity and of self-sacrifice. There are vast differences in the
contents of holy causes and doctrines, but a certain uniformity
in the factors which make them effective.

 

[Dogmaphobe]

I read it back in the late 60s.

Watching the machinations of the hive-mind leftists, I have been reminded of it much lately.

 

[bluzman61]

Another edition of Eric Hoffer's The True Believer, Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements came out this year. Since 1951 it has always been in print. Considering the mass rioting recently, it is a work worthy of study. Here is a little from his Preface:

This book deals with some peculiarities common to all
mass movements, be they religious movements, social revolutions
or nationalist movements. It does not maintain that all
movements are identical, but that they share certain essential
characteristics which give them a family likeness.

All mass movements generate in their adherents a readiness
to die and a proclivity for united action; all of them, irrespective
of the doctrine they preach and the program they project,
breed fanaticism, enthusiasm, fervent hope, hatred and intolerance;
all of them are capable of releasing a powerful flow of
activity in certain departments of life; all of them demand blind
faith and singlehearted allegiance.

All movements, however different in doctrine and aspiration,
draw their early adherents from the same types of humanity;
they all appeal to the same types of mind.

Though there are obvious differences between the fanatical
Christian, the fanatical Mohammedan, the fanatical nationalist,
the fanatical Communist and the fanatical Nazi, it is yet true
that the fanaticism which animates them may be viewed and
treated as one. The same is true of the force which drives them
on to expansion and world dominion. There is a certain uniformity
in all types of dedication, of faith, of pursuit of power,
of unity and of self-sacrifice. There are vast differences in the
contents of holy causes and doctrines, but a certain uniformity
in the factors which make them effective.

Fantastic post, thank you.

 

[anynameyouwish]

Another edition of Eric Hoffer's The True Believer, Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements came out this year. Since 1951 it has always been in print. Considering the mass rioting recently, it is a work worthy of study. Here is a little from his Preface:

This book deals with some peculiarities common to all
mass movements, be they religious movements, social revolutions
or nationalist movements. It does not maintain that all
movements are identical, but that they share certain essential
characteristics which give them a family likeness.

All mass movements generate in their adherents a readiness
to die and a proclivity for united action; all of them, irrespective
of the doctrine they preach and the program they project,
breed fanaticism, enthusiasm, fervent hope, hatred and intolerance;
all of them are capable of releasing a powerful flow of
activity in certain departments of life; all of them demand blind
faith and singlehearted allegiance.

All movements, however different in doctrine and aspiration,
draw their early adherents from the same types of humanity;
they all appeal to the same types of mind.

Though there are obvious differences between the fanatical
Christian, the fanatical Mohammedan, the fanatical nationalist,
the fanatical Communist and the fanatical Nazi, it is yet true
that the fanaticism which animates them may be viewed and
treated as one. The same is true of the force which drives them
on to expansion and world dominion. There is a certain uniformity
in all types of dedication, of faith, of pursuit of power,
of unity and of self-sacrifice. There are vast differences in the
contents of holy causes and doctrines, but a certain uniformity
in the factors which make them effective.

todays deranged mass movement; trumpism!

 

[Skull]

From chapter one:

It is a truism that many who join a rising revolutionary
movement are attracted by the prospect of sudden and spectacular
change in their conditions of life. A revolutionary
movement is a conspicuous instrument of change.

Not so obvious is the fact that religious and nationalist
movements too can be vehicles of change. Some kind of widespread
enthusiasm or excitement is apparently needed for the
realization of vast and rapid change, and it does not seem to
matter whether the exhilaration is derived from an expectation
of untold riches or is generated by an active mass movement.
In this country the spectacular changes since the Civil War
were enacted in an atmosphere charged with the enthusiasm
born of fabulous opportunities for self-advancement. Where
self-advancement cannot, or is not allowed to, serve as a driving
force, other sources of enthusiasm have to be found if momentous
changes, such as the awakening and renovation of a stagnant
society or radical reforms in the character and pattern
of life of a community, are to be realized and perpetuated.
Religious, revolutionary and nationalist movements are such
generating plants of general enthusiasm.

 

[Skull]

From his collection of sayings - The Passionate State of Mind:

There is a powerful craving in most of us to see ourselves as instruments in the hands of others and thus free ourselves from the responsibility for acts which are prompted by our own questionable inclinations and impulses. Both the strong and the weak grasp at this alibi. The latter hide their malevolence under the virtue of obedience: they acted dishonorably because they had to obey orders. The strong, too, claim absolution by proclaiming themselves the chosen instrument of a higher power—God, history, fate, nation or humanity.