The True Believer_ Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements - Eric Hoffer [0]
BELIEVER
_____
Thoughts on
the Nature of
Mass Movements
ERIC HOFFER
To
MARGARET ANDERSON
without whose goading finger
which reached me across a continent
this book
would not have been written
Man would fain be great and sees that he is little; would fain be happy and sees that he is miserable; would fain be perfect and sees that he is full of imperfections; would fain be the object of the love and esteem of men, and sees that his faults merit only their aversion and contempt. The embarrassment wherein he finds himself produces in him the most unjust and criminal passions imaginable, for he conceives a mortal hatred against that truth which blames him and convinces him of his faults.
—PASCAL, Pensées
And slime had they for mortar.
—GENESIS II
Contents
Preface
PART 1. THE APPEAL OF MASS MOVEMENTS
I. The Desire for Change
II. The Desire for Substitutes
III. The Interchangeability of Mass Movements
PART 2. THE POTENTIAL CONVERTS
IV. The Role of the Undesirables in Human Affairs
V. The Poor
The New Poor
The Abjectly Poor
The Free Poor
The Creative Poor
The Unified Poor
VI. Misfits
VII. The Inordinately Selfish
VIII. The Ambitious Facing Unlimited Opportunities
IX. Minorities
X. The Bored
XI. The Sinners
PART 3. UNITED ACTION AND SELF-SACRIFICE
XII. Preface
XIII. Factors Promoting Self-sacrifice
Identification with a Collective Whole
Make-believe
Deprecation of the Present
“Things Which are Not”
Doctrine
Fanaticism
Mass Movements and Armies
XIV. Unifying Agents
Hatred
Imitation
Persuasion and Coercion
Leadership
Action
Suspicion
The Effects of Unification
PART 4. BEGINNING AND END
XV. Men of Words
XVI. The Fanatics
XVII. The Practical Men of Action
XVIII. Good and Bad Mass Movements
The Unattractiveness and Sterility of the Active Phase
Some Factors Which Determine the Length of the Active Phase
Useful Mass Movements
About the Author
Books by Eric Hoffer
Copyright
About the Publisher
Notes
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. He who, like Pascal, finds precise reasons for the effectiveness of Christian doctrine has also found the reasons for the effectiveness of Communist, Nazi and nationalist doctrine. However different the holy causes people die for, they perhaps die basically for the same thing.
This book concerns itself chiefly with the active, revivalist phase of mass movements. This phase is dominated by the true believer—the man of fanatical faith who is ready to sacrifice his life for a