# An Analysis of Eric Hoffer's the True Believer  ## Metadata - Author:: [[Jonah S. Rubin]] - Full Title:: An Analysis of Eric Hoffer's the True Believer - Category: #books ## Highlights > Hoffer’s unique approach in The True Believer was to look at radical political movements and dissect their psychological appeal to frustrated individuals, rather than simply analyze their stated beliefs. ([Location 127](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=127)) > He moved around frequently looking for a stable job, but wherever he went, Hoffer always rented a modest room near the municipal library. ([Location 135](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=135)) - Note: And near a whore house > Yet Hoffer continued to work on the docks until union rules forced him to retire at the age of 67. ([Location 143](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=143)) > Regardless of the specific political, religious, or ideological beliefs of the particular people involved, mass movements all appeal to the same type of individual. ([Location 150](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=150)) > But Hoffer takes a different approach. He argues that the people who join cults,* fascist* and authoritarian* parties, or political movements all suffer from the same psychological shortcomings. ([Location 155](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=155)) > These individuals have low self-esteem,* finding little of worth in their own characters. They have become frustrated with their own situations, have lost all faith in themselves, and, as a result, no longer value their individual identity. ([Location 156](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=156)) > “Faith [in the extremist group] in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves.” ([Location 159](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=159)) > Extremist organizations replace people’s lost sense of self-worth with a focus on the group. ([Location 160](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=160)) > Followers profess undying loyalty to the group’s leaders and show unquestioning faith in its mission. And, having abandoned any sense of personal self-worth, they become willing to die for the cause. ([Location 162](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=162)) > extremist groups are interchangeable. ([Location 164](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=164)) > People join mass movements to escape their own frustrations and to find a sense of purpose. Yet, the specific group they join is really a coincidence, rather than being about a specific ideology. ([Location 165](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=165)) > escape one mass movement often end up joining another. This happens because they have not resolved the underlying psychological sense of inferiority that led them to join such a group in the first place. ([Location 166](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=166)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > One mass movement’s gain is another extremist group’s loss. ([Location 170](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=170)) > He sees India’s pioneer of nonviolent resistance Mohandas Karmachand “Mahatma” Gandhi* and US presidents Abraham Lincoln* and Franklin Delano Roosevelt* as leaders of positive mass movements. ([Location 173](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=173)) > The True Believer persuaded Americans to look at mass movements not only by examining the speeches and slogans of their leaders, but also by looking at the social and psychological conditions of their members. ([Location 177](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=177)) > Hoffer originally wrote the book after thinking about both Nazism and Stalinism.* At the time, most analysts saw these two movements as polar opposites. ([Location 179](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=179)) > This novel yet understandable approach made it an instant success, with American politicians praising the book’s emphasis on individuality and self-reliance as an antidote to the allure of mass movements. ([Location 181](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=181)) > Today, analysts often talk about how terrorist organizations take advantage of poverty and frustration to breed hatred and radicalism. ([Location 191](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=191)) > Hoffer argues that it is not the ideas professed by such mass movements* that attract these individuals. Instead, he says these people act out of a sense of desperation and hopelessness. Having lost all sense of self-worth, they become willing to cast their lot in with a particular group and follow its leaders blindly. ([Location 213](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=213)) > Regardless of their religious, political, or ideological standpoint, these organizations all draw their supporters from the same pool of frustrated individuals. ([Location 217](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=217)) > Hoffer analyzed the role diehards play in forming the backbone of any radical social movement. In doing so, he shed light on how a small group of individuals can effect large-scale change. ([Location 226](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=226)) > political and economic failings produce large numbers of frustrated, hopeless individuals. Seeing little possibility of real change in their own lives, they become willing to give them up for a cause. ([Location 232](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=232)) > Hoffer was especially concerned by Nazi* Germany’s success in recruiting vast numbers of willing volunteers, despite the Nazi party’s overt racism, and by the totalitarian* tendencies of Stalinist* Russia exemplified by the denial of individual liberty. ([Location 250](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=250)) > Hoffer rejected the label of “intellectual.” Instead, he insisted he was first and foremost a longshoreman. His extremely accessible writing style reflects the way he saw himself, and led to him being nicknamed the “Longshoreman Philosopher.” ([Location 260](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=260)) > In the 1930s and 1940s—before Eric Hoffer wrote The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements—Americans commonly spoke of “mass movements.” But the phrase has largely fallen out of popular use. Modern writers might use any number of words to describe the phenomena Hoffer analyzes, including: “populist* movements,” “uprisings,” “terrorist groups,” “radical organizations,” “extremists,” and “grassroots mobilizations.” ([Location 278](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=278)) > But “the masses” were governed by fickle sentiments that skillful leaders could easily manipulate. Individuals who became part of these crowds lost their individual identity, as something like a mob mentality took over. ([Location 286](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=286)) > But as the Spanish liberal* philosopher José Ortega y Gasset* warned his readers, these new mass political movements were characterized by the first appearance of “a type of man who does not want to give reasons or to be right, but simply shows himself resolved to impose his opinions. ([Location 292](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=292)) > They were used to a liberal-democratic* tradition based on a rather dispassionate, rational debate. ([Location 292](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=292)) > That is the new thing: the right not to be reasonable, the ‘reason of unreason.’” ([Location 294](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=294)) > First, American sociologist Peter Drucker* and others analyzed fascism as a moral failure on the part of the societies in which it took root. ([Location 301](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=301)) > A second group of authors, influenced by politically left-wing Marxist* analyses, saw fascism as the product of class struggle. ([Location 304](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=304)) > Scholars like R. Palme Dutt* believed that Italy and Germany had fallen to fascism because capitalism* had come to dominate other types of economic production, leading to many ordinary people becoming disgruntled and angry. ([Location 305](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=305)) > A group of scholars, influenced heavily by Freudian* psychoanalysis,* (theories of the mind associated with the famous Austrian Sigmund Freud)* looked for the origins of fascism in the psychological defects of the people who were drawn to it. ([Location 307](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=307)) > Finally, a diverse group of academics focused on the entry of “amorphous masses,” lacking any clear organizing principle or focus, into politics. ([Location 310](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=310)) > Hoffer was a long-time admirer of the sixteenth-century French Renaissance* philosopher and essayist Michel de Montaigne,* and his informal and anecdotal writing style has a lot in common with Montaigne’s. ([Location 316](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=316)) > He took extensive notes on German psychologist Erich Fromm’s* 1941 work, Escape From Freedom, another text that focused on the complex relationship between freedom, helplessness, and authoritarian politics. ([Location 322](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=322)) > Like Hoffer, Fromm argued that people who submit themselves to an authority figure do so out of a sense of powerlessness and isolation. ([Location 324](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=324)) > Hoffer extended his analysis of fascism to cover all mass movements, whether they had positive or negative effects on the world. ([Location 343](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=343)) > Unlike other authors of the time, Hoffer was not merely interested in fascist or totalitarian* movements. He also looked at far less violent movements, like Mohandas Karmachand “Mahatma” Gandhi’s* openly nonviolent movement to gain Indian independence* from British colonialism. ([Location 349](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=349)) > As he explained, his book “does not maintain that all movements are identical, but that they share certain characteristics which give them a family likeness.”1 ([Location 352](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=352)) > “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 and the same.” Eric Hoffer, The True Believer ([Location 355](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=355)) > The most significant thing all mass movements have in common, Hoffer argues, is the psychological profile of those who join them. ([Location 358](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=358)) > Scholars generally agreed that fascism rose as less-educated city-dwellers suddenly became active in European politics for the first time. ([Location 362](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=362)) > French psychologist and sociologist Gustave Le Bon.* As far back as 1895, Le Bon identified a new group of people motivated not by the rational interests of their social positions, but instead by emotional forces that drove them towards rage, unity, and extremism. ([Location 366](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=366)) > In 1942, the American sociologist Talcott Parsons* blamed increasing “anomie”*—that is, isolation from social rules of behavior—for the growing number of people “imbued with a highly emotional, indeed often fanatical, zeal for a cause.” ([Location 368](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=368)) > In Germany and Italy, they argued, children had generally been brought up with a lower sense of self-esteem.* Throughout their adult lives this generated feelings of fear and inferiority, as well as a strong lust for power. ([Location 372](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=372)) > When The True Believer was published in 1951, conventional wisdom said that Nazism* and Stalinism* were ideologically opposed. This seemed logical. ([Location 376](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=376)) > The same year that The True Believer appeared, political theorist Hannah Arendt* published her book, The Origins of Totalitarianism. ([Location 378](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=378)) > Like Hoffer, she argued that fascism arose in part because of the loss of a sense of community among masses of common people. ([Location 380](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=380)) > What Hoffer did was provide a framework capable of analyzing not only political movements like Nazism or Stalinism, but also fanatical religious groups, independence movements, and other social organizations. ([Location 384](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=384)) > For Hoffer, the best understanding of a mass movement does not come from examining its ideas, its leaders, or its organization. Instead, Hoffer argues that all mass movements attract the same frustrated personality type. ([Location 414](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=414)) > Hoffer views the leaders as relatively unimportant to the success or otherwise of mass movements. ([Location 419](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=419)) > “Though they seem at opposite poles, fanatics of all kinds are actually crowded together at one end. It is the fanatic and the moderate who are poles apart and never meet.” Eric Hoffer, The True Believer ([Location 422](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=422)) > Like the Marxists,* Hoffer believed that certain economic factors helped to increase the number of people susceptible to this kind of mass politics. The poor were especially likely to feel frustrated with their station in life. ([Location 439](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=439)) > From the psychologists, Hoffer borrowed the idea that fascist movements addressed a sense of inadequacy and low self-esteem* characteristic of many people in modern city life. ([Location 441](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=441)) > And from political sociologists Hoffer drew the idea that the art of government changed substantially when irrational and easily swayed mobs entered politics. ([Location 442](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=442)) > Finally, Hoffer is clear in his condemnation of fascism, seeing it as a great moral crisis and as a failure of modern politics. ([Location 443](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=443)) > Hoffer also discusses many other examples of mass movements, including the eighteenth-century French Revolution,* Zionism* (the political movement looking to establish a homeland for the Jewish people), Gandhi’s* independence movement against British colonialism* in India, the religions of Roman Catholicism and early Islam,* Dixiecrats,* (a short-lived American political party dedicating to maintaining states’ rights to segregation), and Zulus,* who also fought against British colonialism. ([Location 448](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=448)) > They will grasp at any means necessary to escape their own persistent sense of despair: “Their innermost craving is for a new life—a rebirth—or, failing this, a chance to acquire new elements of pride, confidence, hope, a sense of purpose and worth by an identification with a holy cause.”1 ([Location 466](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=466)) > “When our individual prospects do not seem worth living for, we are in desperate need of something apart from ourselves to live for.”2 ([Location 470](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=470)) > Mass movements do not offer any kind of true psychological healing for these people, though. Instead, the movements magnify their problems. ([Location 473](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=473)) > “Not only does a mass movement depict the present as mean and miserable—it deliberately makes it so.”3 Its members must therefore destroy the present to create a radically different society. ([Location 475](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=475)) > “The fanatic is perpetually incomplete and insecure. He cannot generate self-assurance out of his individual resources—out of his rejected self—but finds it only by clinging passionately to whatever support he happens to embrace.” Eric Hoffer, The True Believer ([Location 481](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=481)) > “When people are ripe for a mass movement, they are usually ripe for any effective movement, and not solely for one with a particular doctrine or program.” ([Location 487](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=487)) > That means each radical movement’s gain or loss is balanced by the losses or gains of another radical movement. If somebody joins a radical religious cult,* for instance, that person ceases to be available for recruitment by a radical political organization. ([Location 489](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=489)) - Note: Zero sum game for movements, makes them even more radical > Hoffer writes, “the true believer who is wholly assimilated into a compact collective body is no longer frustrated. He has found a new identity and a new life” ([Location 495](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=495)) > As part of this “collective body,” a person acquires a faith in their ability “to attack the past in order to liberate the present … [and] give up enthusiastically any chance of ever tasting or inheriting the present.” ([Location 497](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=497)) > Economic factors like poverty, especially among people who were not previously poor, can cause the type of deep frustrations that mass movements thrive on. ([Location 502](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=502)) > People who are overly ambitious, selfish, sinners, or people who are simply just bored, are easy targets for recruitment. ([Location 503](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=503)) > Minorities, faced with what seems like an impossible task of fully integrating into the dominant culture, can become frustrated when they see opportunities to improve their lives closed off to them. ([Location 504](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=504)) > “Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to empty life.” ([Location 510](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=510)) > Hoffer believes that all mass movements stem from the same psychological needs of disenchanted people. But the specific shape a mass movement takes depends on its leaders. ([Location 542](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=542)) > Despite his skepticism about the nature of mass movements, Hoffer did not believe all of them were evil. He saw that on occasion a mass movement can be a necessary force for renewal. ([Location 544](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=544)) > During the first phase, mass movements gather strength as mounting frustration leads more people to join extremist groups. ([Location 548](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=548)) > “active phase.” This is when the movement is at its most fanatical and most dangerous, ([Location 549](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=549)) > Eventually, the movement becomes moderated. ([Location 550](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=550)) > “The personality of the leader is probably a crucial factor in determining the nature and duration of a mass movement. Such rare leaders as Lincoln and Gandhi not only try to curb the evil inherent in a mass movement but are willing to put an end to the movement when its objective is more or less realized.” Eric Hoffer, The True Believer ([Location 555](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=555)) > Hoffer divides these leaders into three categories: men of words during the initial phase of the movement; fanatics in the active phase; and practical men of action as the movement becomes more tamed. ([Location 561](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=561)) > Most leaders—such as Vladimir Lenin,* who led the Russian Revolution of 1917*—are incapable of making the transition from one role to another. ([Location 564](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=564)) > “When the same person or persons (or the same type of person) leads a movement from its inception to maturity, it usually ends in disaster.” ([Location 566](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=566)) > “Men of words” are intellectuals who see themselves as representatives of the downtrodden and oppressed. ([Location 571](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=571)) > By criticizing the authorities, they make the discontented question their beliefs and their loyalty to existing institutions. ([Location 572](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=572)) > Although fanatics lack the creativity of the men of words, they know how to read a crowd, and control and direct their desires: ([Location 579](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=579)) > Since the mass movement itself breeds hatred and searches out more and more enemies in its unceasing quest for extremism, the risk remains that the movement will become even more violent, and so need a leader with yet more bloodlust. ([Location 582](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=582)) > The practical “man of action” saves the movement from its own destructive tendencies. These leaders put an end to the “active phase” of the mass movement. They consolidate it into new institutions, such as state bureaucracies or Church hierarchies. ([Location 584](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=584)) > sense of duty, ([Location 586](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=586)) > On the contrary, he argues that they are at times necessary to revitalize a stagnant political community: “A genuine popular upheaval is often an invigorating, renovating and integrating process.” ([Location 595](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=595)) > The frustration of the masses stems in part from the failures of their leaders and institutions. Sometimes a mass movement can fix these problems in the authority that already exists. ([Location 597](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=597)) > While good mass movements pursue concrete and realistic goals, bad mass movements phrase their aims vaguely. ([Location 601](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=601)) > The new social order that results tends to offer increased individual liberty.” ([Location 606](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=606)) > In contrast, truly negative mass movements have vague goals. Without ever truly being able to achieve their fuzzy ideals, they drift toward authoritarianism.* ([Location 607](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=607)) > Instead, he asks the reader to consider what sorts of psychological states must exist in people for them to become open to such repulsive ideas. ([Location 638](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=638)) > Eisenhower praised the book for demonstrating “that dictatorial systems make one contribution to their people which leads them to tend to support such systems—freedom from the necessity of informing themselves and making up their own minds.” ([Location 654](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=654)) > Because Hoffer never actually defined his key term, it is still impossible to tell if populist* movements that sprang up later—like the 1960s subculture of hippies,* the Civil Rights Movement* in the United States of the 1950s and 1960s,* or the anti-Vietnam War protests* of the 1960s and 1970s—qualify as mass movements or not. ([Location 665](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=665)) > Hoffer argues that people do not, in fact, choose their own destiny and their own political movements. But this means his analysis ignores the bravery or wisdom of the individuals who fought in “positive” mass movements for ideas, rights, and policies that were once considered outside the political mainstream. ([Location 671](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=671)) - Note: Does it? Even people fighting for a good cause are alienated from themselves in some manner. > Hoffer rejects the idea that these differences are because of inborn biological differences between the races. Instead, he argues that different national characteristics stem from each particular group’s long and unique history. ([Location 678](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=678)) > Yet at the same time, Hoffer worried that increasing automation and mechanization in the workplace might lead to “a dangerously volatile element in a totally new kind of American society” ([Location 710](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=710)) > Hoffer, however, argued that Asian peoples had a “craving for pride.” ([Location 728](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=728)) > Hoffer increasingly emphasized the importance of individual liberty as a key motivation for the working masses. ([Location 738](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=738)) > By contrast, Hoffer grew increasingly convinced of American exceptionalism* throughout his career. ([Location 741](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=741)) - Note: But “exceptionalism” is something you are, not that you talk about. The more others insist in our exceptionalism, the more surely it evaporates. > “America is a nation that has run on morals, almost independent of its leaders or Congress. For a long time America didn’t need a government. People from all over the world came here, worked hard and made America work.” ([Location 742](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=742)) > vocal criticisms of Civil Rights leaders. ([Location 750](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=750)) > Hoffer accused them of encouraging rage in the African American community and of failing to build communal institutions. ([Location 751](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=751)) > Harvard University-based historian Arthur Schlesinger* called it “brilliant and original.” ([Location 780](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=780)) > From Cambridge University, the famous philosopher Bertrand Russell* praised Hoffer’s work as “sound intellectually and timely politically.” ([Location 781](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=781)) > who called the book “a model of detachment about the kind of person who has generally lent himself to anything but detachment.”4 ([Location 784](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=784)) > People with ties to the Socialist Party,* like Evan Thomas*—an acquisition editor at Hoffer’s own publisher, Harper’s—attacked the book for saying that all political action could be traced to a psychological loss of self-worth. These people said Hoffer left no room for people to hold any real belief in the positive potential of a radical movement. ([Location 787](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=787)) > attacked the book for saying that all political action could be traced to a psychological loss of self-worth. These people said Hoffer left no room for people to hold any real belief in the positive potential of a radical movement. ([Location 789](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=789)) > Similarly, the Roman Catholic monk Bernard Theall* attacked the book for comparing religious movements to fascism* and communism.*6 ([Location 790](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=790)) > Political science professor A. James Gregor* criticized works like Hoffer’s for being overly vague: “at best, they provide broad and imprecise conceptual categories that perhaps assist us in identifying some of the necessary conditions for the advent of fascism.” ([Location 796](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=796)) > Even many of the book’s supporters agreed with this criticism. Historian Richard Pipes,* who assigned The True Believer in his Harvard classes, said that the book applied the term “mass movement” too loosely. ([Location 799](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=799)) > Pipes viewed mass movements as relatively rare happenings that usually involved only a minority of the population—if only because the majority remained too concerned with their daily lives to actively engage in political activity.8 ([Location 800](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=800)) > Although Hoffer made compelling generalizations, readers often struggle to understand how and where they may apply his observations to the real world. ([Location 804](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=804)) > Hoffer eventually accepted Dr. Pipes’s position that mass movements only arise infrequently. ([Location 809](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=809)) > He also moved away from his initial belief that the leaders of mass movements are relatively unimportant to those movements’ development. ([Location 810](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=810)) > Mass movements are started by intellectuals.” ([Location 812](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=812)) > Nonetheless, Hoffer continued to believe that extremist groups existed first and foremost as a response to the psychological needs of people who had lost faith in themselves. ([Location 813](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=813)) > Over the years, Hoffer increasingly turned his attention away from religious groups to focus on political movements—from communism to the anticolonial* militants fighting for independence in the 1970s. ([Location 817](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=817)) > What scholars once considered a major defect in Hoffer’s work, however, has now become commonplace in conversations about terrorism and radical political organizations. ([Location 824](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=824)) > Hoffer focuses on the emotions and feelings that cause an individual to yearn for radical political change. ([Location 829](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=829)) > But he provides no way of discerning whether that change is positive or negative, or whether it is justified or not. ([Location 830](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=830)) > Were he alive today, Hoffer would see a Black Lives Matter* activist looking to challenge police violence against African Americans, a Tea Party* supporter wanting to reduce the influence of the US government, and an al-Qaeda* terrorist looking to fight for his religious beliefs as all motivated by the same underlying psychological issues. ([Location 831](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=831)) > Hoffer was among the first to recognize that insecurity and a lack of self-esteem could lead people to overcompensate and even seek to dominate others. ([Location 861](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=861)) > But Hoffer found the real drive behind fanaticism in an individual’s own personal self-esteem. This helped explain why even wealthy and well-established people sometimes choose to back radical movements. ([Location 863](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=863)) > By going back to this long-forgotten book, scholars of terrorism found a rich analysis linking these young men’s sense of frustration and inadequacy to their decision to join terror organizations. ([Location 868](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=868)) > “The practice of terror serves the true believer not only to cow and crush his opponents but also to invigorate and intensify his own faith.” Eric Hoffer, The True Believer ([Location 871](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=871)) > But scholars of modern terrorism are more interested in his insights into how mass movements sustain themselves and keep going. ([Location 875](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=875)) > Drawing on Hoffer’s psychological explanations, these analysts focus on the ways in which terror organizations cultivate hatred of the “other” and use this tactic to recruit new members. ([Location 876](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=876)) > Modern critics of Islamic terrorism use Hoffer’s work as a way to explain religious fundamentalism and frequently refer to Hoffer’s observation that “[p]assionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life.”1 ([Location 878](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=878)) > Hoffer’s emphasis on the importance of self-esteem to an individual’s well-being proved to be a significant contribution to the field of social psychology,* or how a social context shapes an individual’s thoughts, emotions, and behavior. ([Location 882](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=882)) > For example, psychotherapist Nathaniel Branden* used Hoffer’s ideas to explain the psychological shortcomings of violent people: “longshoreman-philosopher Eric Hoffer remarks somewhere that the problem is that this is precisely what people do: Persons who hate themselves hate others. The killers of the world, literally and figuratively, are not known to be in loving relationships to their inner selves.”2 ([Location 886](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=886)) > His defense of American individualism* and self-reliance, his attacks on the radical political movements of the 1960s, and his passionate opposition to communism* made him a hero of the conservative* movement. ([Location 890](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=890)) - Note: Otoh, hoffer believed in unionism & solidarity. Collective action to advance personal goals. Healthcare, education, public libraries, food, housing. > Analysts trying to explain the near-simultaneous US rise of the Tea Party* (which opposes overly dominating government) and Occupy Wall Street* (which protests against growing economic inequality) have turned to The True Believer. ([Location 895](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=895)) > Contemporary scholars have explored Hoffer’s psychological model for a number of reasons. Chiefly, they want to explain why cultivating hatred for “others” appears to be such a powerful weapon for terror organizations in their attempts to recruit new members. ([Location 902](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=902)) > They suggest that these organizations get significant mileage from redirecting people’s internal feelings of frustration and channeling it into hatred of an external enemy. ([Location 905](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=905)) > Hoffer also provides a useful way for counterterrorism scholars to explain why we cannot reason with terrorists. People who join radical movements because of their own low self-esteem will likely seek to overcompensate for their perceived failures by unconditionally following whatever cause they adopt. ([Location 906](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=906)) > According to the philosopher Tim Madigan,* terrorism “goes far beyond a debate over religious beliefs, to the very heart of human nature: what allows certain people to override any sense of community with their fellow human beings, and willfully cause death and destruction for the sake of a higher cause?” ([Location 910](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=910)) > The powerful presence of a leader like Bin Laden, they argue, allows otherwise “isolated and individually aggrieved” people to unite in a common cause. ([Location 935](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=935)) > Hoffer could not have imagined, much less analyzed, the kinds of decentralized global networks that comprise modern-day terror organizations. ([Location 941](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=941)) > “It has often been said that power corrupts. But it is perhaps equally important to realize that weakness, too, corrupts. Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.” Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind ([Location 944](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=944)) > Scholars like Jerrold Post,*1 an expert in political psychology, use Hoffer’s work to show that people who commit terror acts are not insane. Rather, they are rational individuals who actually appear “disturbingly normal.” ([Location 950](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=950)) > Joe Navarro,* an author and former FBI* agent, writes, “Hoffer’s paradigm* of mass movements* from sixty years ago still remains valid today. Mass movements, including terrorist movements, uniformly attract these all too familiar kinds of individuals, the dynamic-charismatic leader, the totally compliant follower, and the opportunistic criminal.” ([Location 953](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=953)) > The University of Chicago political scientist Robert Pape* is just one person to have argued that we should not treat terrorism as the product of some kind of hatred or of a psychological lashing out. Rather, we should view it as terrorists undoubtedly do—as a mostly effective tactic for achieving certain political goals.4 ([Location 969](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=969)) > Counterterrorism experts have refocused attention on Hoffer’s insights about how mass movements cultivate extremism. But they ignore Hoffer’s own emphasis on the sociological conditions that breed frustration and desperation in the first place. ([Location 973](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=973)) > Scholars, meanwhile, most often cite The True Believer as proof that no one can reason with terrorists. But we might also read it as supporting the argument that the “root causes” of terrorism lie in difficult economic conditions and political stagnation. ([Location 975](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=975)) > If we could offer these marginalized, discontented people equal opportunities, it might be much harder for radical leaders to build a following. ([Location 978](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=978)) > Eric Hoffer offers very few thoughts about how to counteract the rise of mass movements.* ([Location 996](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=996)) > Inspired by Hoffer, social psychologists* have compared a terrorist leader to “a malevolent group therapist who focuses the discontent of group members on an external cause for their difficulties.” ([Location 997](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=997)) > In effect, modern counterterrorist campaigns must act as the “men of words” Hoffer described. ([Location 999](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=999)) > The True Believer remains part of the curriculum the US Federal Bureau of Investigation* uses to train new counterterrorism agents.5 ([Location 1013](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=1013)) > In The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Hoffer concentrated on the psychological suffering of the people who join radical movements. ([Location 1023](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=1023)) > He also addressed the ways mass movements shape those initial insecurities into fanatical hatred. ([Location 1024](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B073RNZDZN&location=1024))