"If our difficulties can be ascribed to something that has happened in the past, they cannot serve as evidence of our present inadequacy and cannot blemish our self-confidence and self-esteem." - Eric Hoffer, "The Passionate State of Mind," (1955) Joel Raupe
And this is worse than not having a clue, this sells cluelessness as an acceptable narrative. Of course, had these killings taken place at the neighborhood Olive Garden, people would claim to have a clue, would they not?
They might ask, yet again, what motivated millions of Germans to join the Nazi comic opera, seventy years ago, and why their officers were offended when, after all was said and done, it was explained to them that "just following orders" was hardly an excuse and made a poor defense.
The Fort Hood "shooter" fits a profile, and along more than one track, of those who join Mass Movements. See a definitive work on the subject, "The True Believer," by Eric Hoffer (1951).
The "readiness for self-sacrifice" is a the big clue. The perception of a "permanently ruined self," incapable of socialization and, perhaps more importantly, lacking the capacity or opportunity for achieving a sense of "unquestioned usefulness," the shooter sought self-annihilation and a promised escape from the burden of responsibility that comes with freedom, by submission to a collective, where choice becomes the prerogative of the collective, especially a collective touched with timeless destiny.
Add to Hoffer the singularly Judeo-Christian view that there is no escape from the responsibility that comes from "knowing good and evil," and the panic that sent Adam and Eve running for the tall grass, suddenly aware of their "nakedness," becomes a picture of the Human Condition, for many.
A pet cat will tease a captured and stunned mouse until the prey is exhausted or dead, literally torturing the animal to death, and no one suggests the cat is doing anything other than its "natural born thing."
But if little Johnny does the same thing we might seek professional help for him.
There's no mystery here. The shooter made a deliberate decision, and coldly, based on the perception of having merged an unwanted self with a collective that cannot die, and cannot be questioned.
It's amazing how so recent a history as that of World War II can be lost on so many, so quickly.
But, for a brief time, in the middle 1960's, Hoffer and his definitive work "The True Believer" was required reading in American High Schools and the Longshoreman philosopher was the subject of a CBS prime time television special where he was interviewed for ninety minutes by Walter Cronkite. He even was awarded the American Freedom Medal in 1982.
Fittingly, Hoffer's work has been in demand and back in print since 2001.
