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As Eric Hoffer points out, people who are frustrated are prone to joining mass movements. He also points out that those who are prone to joining mass movements tend to join only one at a time. (I call this the Hoffer Exclusion Principle.) The two largest mass movements in America are The Left and Organized Christianity. Thus, those in America who are prone to joining mass movements will tend to be involved with one of these, but not both. Prager seems to understand this Exclusion Principle, but not the emboldened part.

As a corollary, one way to "cure" someone from being involved in a particular mass movement is to substitute another one, which is what Prager is suggesting as a cure for Leftism. But Hoffer also points out there is danger in simply substituting one mass movement for another. It's like fighting a fire by throwing on a different kind of gasoline.

There is another way: Eliminate the feelings of frustration that drive people to mass movements. Philosophers, economists and others have been trying to solve this puzzle for millenia. There are two kinds of solutions: 1) Empowering individuals by establishing the right conditions (e.g, liberty and capitalism) and 2) helping people improve their own minds so that their response to their conditions does not create unwarranted frustration (e.g., philosphy and unorganized religion).

The conservative pundits that Prager is curiously criticizing are persuing this other way, which could be called Enlightenment—in both the classical European and Eastern senses.