Posted on 03/14/2017 5:18:58 AM PDT by Kaslin
Remember Eric Hoffer? His time has come -- again.
The late and still great Eric Hoffer's classic study of mass man, mass movements, and the mass mind ("The True Believer") appeared in 1951, and it remains just as perceptive in this first year of the Age of Trump; it could have been published yesterday. If you seek evidence for that assertion, just pick up a copy, or take a look at the protesters who threaten to shut down some of this country's oldest and most prestigious colleges and universities -- from Ivy League schools in the east to their counterparts on the other side of the continent. All too often this motley crew may be appeased by craven administrators. But not this time, and not at Stanford, where a former provost named John Etchemendy recently addressed the school's board of trustees in terms as vigorous as they remain relevant.
"Over the years," as the valiant Mr. Etchemendy told Stanford's board, "I have watched a growing intolerance at universities in this country -- not intolerance along racial or ethnic or gender lines -- there, we have made laudable progress. Rather, a kind of intellectual intolerance, a political one-sidedness that is the antithesis of what universities should stand for....
"The university is not a megaphone to amplify this or that political view, and when it does it violates a core mission. Universities must remain open forums for contentious debate, and they cannot do so while officially espousing one side of that debate.
"But we must do more," he continued. "We need to encourage real diversity of thought in the professoriate, and that will be even harder to achieve. It is hard for anyone to acknowledge high-quality work when that work is at odds, perhaps opposed, to one's own deeply held beliefs. But we all need worthy opponents to challenge us in our search for truth."
Amen. For whoever learned that much from his admirers? It is our critics that oblige us to think our ideas through, and so strengthen us.
Eric Hoffer could have seen all this to-do coming and did. As he put it in "The True Believer": "The fact that both the French and Russian revolutions turned into nationalist movements seems to indicate that in modern times nationalism is the most copious and durable source of mass enthusiasm, and that nationalist fervor must be tapped if the drastic changes projected and initiated by revolutionary enthusiasm are to be consummated."
Sound familiar? It should. For the views expressed in Eric Hoffer's slim little book could stand as a compendium of all the cheap tricks used to distract We the People from responsibility for our own condition. Here are some other choice selections from Eric Hoffer's guide to politics and its discontents:
"The tendency to look for all causes outside ourselves persists even when it is clear that our state of being is the product of personal qualities such as ability, character, appearance, health and so on. 'If anything ail a man,' says Thoreau, 'so that he does not perform his functions, if he has a pain in his bowels even ... he forthwith sets about reforming -- the world.' "
"A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business."
"A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed."
"Those who clamor loudest for freedom are often the least likely to be happy in a free society. The frustrated, oppressed by their shortcomings, blame their failure on existing restraints. Actually their innermost desire is for an end to the 'free for all.' They want to eliminate free competition and the ruthless testing to which the individual is continually subjected in a free society."
Agree or disagree with Eric Hoffer's percipient observations, they are still worthwhile. And worth analyzing. For "The True Believer" is not to be devoured in a single setting. One by one they have ripened over the years till they are again in season.
I have a soft copy. On my list to read.
‘’Those who bite the hand that feeds them will lick the boots that kick them.’’ — Hoffer, I think
Hoffer’s great. I donated a set of his works to my local library when I discovered there was no Hoffer in the house. Short enough and written by a longshoreman— every high schooler ought to be reading him.
Also along the same lines:
https://www.amazon.com/Crowds-Power-Elias-Canetti/dp/0374518203
His follow-up book, “The Ordeal of Change”, is every bit as relevant if not more so.
Great, great book.
Hoffer really understood so much. Never read a bad book by him, and I’ve read most of his stuff.
My favorite Hoffer quote:
“For many people, an excuse is better than an achievement because an achievement, no matter how great, leaves you having to prove yourself again in the future but an excuse can last for life.”
Great reading. Just difficult enough to keep you focused. I have a friend who was close friends with Hoffer years ago. He admired him greatly.
Just ordered the book.
Used Alibris.com
Trying to avoid Amazon at all costs.
Will read, sounds interesting.
A Freeper introduced me to Friedman. Am always looking for good reads.
Some interesting insights:
Seeking to explain the attraction of the New Left protest movements, he characterized them as the result of widespread affluence, which "is robbing a modern society of whatever it has left of puberty rites to routinize the attainment of manhood." He saw the puberty rites as essential for self-esteem and noted that mass movements and juvenile mindsets tend to go together, to the point that anyone, no matter what age, who joins a mass movement immediately begins to exhibit juvenile behavior.
Eric Hoffer was amazing. In fact, when I selected my FR name, it was partially a nod to him.
I am finishing up True Believer for the third time now. It ought to be mandatory reading for every college student.
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