# The True Believer Revisited  ## Metadata - Author:: [[Tim Madigan]] - Full Title:: The True Believer Revisited - Category: #articles - URL: https://philosophynow.org/issues/34/The_True_Believer_Revisited ## Highlights > Hoffer worked in various odd jobs and drifted throughout the country (including Los Angeles’ famous Skid Row), until becoming a longshoreman in 1943, a job he kept until his mandatory retirement at the age of 65 ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbcaw4pw3zzsth22qsrwwms)) > When asked once “Are you an intellectual?”, Hoffer proudly responded, “No, I’m a longshoreman.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbcb6jnhna7a5pzc2knwnam)) > it was based upon years of reflection, and his own observations of the rise of fascism, Nazism and communism as reactions to the Great Depression ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbcd4v6q5fjmpjwa2nfw1cj)) > The main point Hoffer stresses in his book is that, for the ‘true believer’ (someone so committed to a cause that he or she is willing to unthinkingly die for it) ideologies are interchangeable ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbcdm9xxxhpqtry498v92bd)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > It is the frustrations of life which lead the believers to join a cause that gives meaning to their own existences, and the more frustrated they feel, the more attracted they are to extreme revolutionary solutions to their problems ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbce60hkjrpvs9gbcrve517)) > Christianity in the Middle Ages became so obsessed with devils and witchcraft that it justified mass slaughter and the very sorts of atrocities one would normally attribute to satanic forces ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbcfep28agxz8bbyxsz6mwa)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > All the true believers of our time”, he wrote in 1951, “communist, nazi, fascist … declaim volubly about the decadence of the West.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbch94882g38v1t8e80cqy4)) > Pat Robertson just days after the bombings, when the former stated that secularism, homosexuality, abortion and feminism had weakened the moral fiber of the nation and made it vulnerable to attack, as well as to God’s wrath ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbck261msjqke4dat2b8626)) > Hitler and Stalin, for instance, each admired the techniques the other had used to gain and maintain absolute power, and both expressed contempt for the democratic leaders Churchill and Roosevelt ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbckr6pach18rvbxwbejrch)) > A rising mass movement attracts and holds a following not by its doctrines and promises but by the refuge it offers from the anxieties, barrenness and meaninglessness of an individual existence ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbcm5kcr4v5h2ft8sbjjv00)) > Though hatred is a convenient instrument for mobilizing a community for defense,” Hoffer warns, “it does not, in the long run, come cheap. We pay for it by losing all or many of the values we have set out to defend.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbcnqg4wyw1hz49rs3ra5qg)) > What motivated Hoffer to write *The True Believer*? In later interviews, he confessed that he saw himself as a potential mass leader – he had charisma, a way with words, and a cold heart towards his fellow human beings, all essential elements for leading large numbers of people and not caring what ultimately happens to them. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbcpg7r0wsm8hw71t6mren4)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Hoffer withdrew from the limelight in the early 1970s, after the bad experiences he had on the UC-Berkeley campus where, as a visiting scholar, he felt the student movement’s growing advocacy of violence only verified the claims he had made about the dangers of True Believers ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbcq2bstefvtyyw70ynn1cy)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > He faded from the limelight, saying “Any man can ride a train. Only a wise man knows when to get off.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbcq8jw6ezd6c46ze1z1s3y)) # The True Believer Revisited  ## Metadata - Author:: [[Tim Madigan]] - Full Title:: The True Believer Revisited - Category: #articles - URL: https://philosophynow.org/issues/34/The_True_Believer_Revisited ## Highlights > Hoffer worked in various odd jobs and drifted throughout the country (including Los Angeles’ famous Skid Row), until becoming a longshoreman in 1943, a job he kept until his mandatory retirement at the age of 65 ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbcaw4pw3zzsth22qsrwwms)) > When asked once “Are you an intellectual?”, Hoffer proudly responded, “No, I’m a longshoreman.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbcb6jnhna7a5pzc2knwnam)) > it was based upon years of reflection, and his own observations of the rise of fascism, Nazism and communism as reactions to the Great Depression ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbcd4v6q5fjmpjwa2nfw1cj)) > The main point Hoffer stresses in his book is that, for the ‘true believer’ (someone so committed to a cause that he or she is willing to unthinkingly die for it) ideologies are interchangeable ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbcdm9xxxhpqtry498v92bd)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > It is the frustrations of life which lead the believers to join a cause that gives meaning to their own existences, and the more frustrated they feel, the more attracted they are to extreme revolutionary solutions to their problems ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbce60hkjrpvs9gbcrve517)) > Christianity in the Middle Ages became so obsessed with devils and witchcraft that it justified mass slaughter and the very sorts of atrocities one would normally attribute to satanic forces ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbcfep28agxz8bbyxsz6mwa)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > All the true believers of our time”, he wrote in 1951, “communist, nazi, fascist … declaim volubly about the decadence of the West.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbch94882g38v1t8e80cqy4)) > Pat Robertson just days after the bombings, when the former stated that secularism, homosexuality, abortion and feminism had weakened the moral fiber of the nation and made it vulnerable to attack, as well as to God’s wrath ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbck261msjqke4dat2b8626)) > Hitler and Stalin, for instance, each admired the techniques the other had used to gain and maintain absolute power, and both expressed contempt for the democratic leaders Churchill and Roosevelt ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbckr6pach18rvbxwbejrch)) > A rising mass movement attracts and holds a following not by its doctrines and promises but by the refuge it offers from the anxieties, barrenness and meaninglessness of an individual existence ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbcm5kcr4v5h2ft8sbjjv00)) > Though hatred is a convenient instrument for mobilizing a community for defense,” Hoffer warns, “it does not, in the long run, come cheap. We pay for it by losing all or many of the values we have set out to defend.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbcnqg4wyw1hz49rs3ra5qg)) > What motivated Hoffer to write *The True Believer*? In later interviews, he confessed that he saw himself as a potential mass leader – he had charisma, a way with words, and a cold heart towards his fellow human beings, all essential elements for leading large numbers of people and not caring what ultimately happens to them. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbcpg7r0wsm8hw71t6mren4)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Hoffer withdrew from the limelight in the early 1970s, after the bad experiences he had on the UC-Berkeley campus where, as a visiting scholar, he felt the student movement’s growing advocacy of violence only verified the claims he had made about the dangers of True Believers ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbcq2bstefvtyyw70ynn1cy)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > He faded from the limelight, saying “Any man can ride a train. Only a wise man knows when to get off.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gvbcq8jw6ezd6c46ze1z1s3y))