The True Believer, Part I
If you’re not familiar with a guy named Eric Hoffer, don’t feel too bad—I discovered him by accident not long ago. What I learned about his life and work greatly interests me.
For starters, he’s not your normal academic, despite having authored many philosophical works. He was self-educated and worked as a longshoreman in San Francisco for a couple decades after the start of WWII, using breaks from physical labor to read and write. He eventually received recognition for his work, but for years he quietly worked away, exercising both body and mind. Pretty based—I approve.
Eric Hoffer’s most famous book was his first, a work called The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, first published in 1951. I was pretty well-read as a kid, but I don’t remember ever hearing of this book. Having read it now, I think it should be required reading in schools . . . once schools get to the point where their students can read, well, anything.
The title is pretty self-explanatory—Hoffer analyzes mass movements and their adherents. These movements can be religious, political, or nationalistic in nature. The book is divided into four sections, with Parts 1 and 2 discussing mass movements and their appeal as well as the potential converts to said movements. Part 3, entitled “United Action and Self-Sacrifice,” analyzes factors influencing the actions of the true believer, and Part 4 (“Beginning and End”) describes the life cycle of a mass movement. This brief essay will touch on Part 1 and Hoffer’s beliefs on the appeal of mass movements.
“The Desire for Change”
Chapter One addresses an extremely important motivating factor for the true believer: the desire for some sort of change, usually “sudden and spectacular.” This makes sense, as by definition a “movement” implies changing from one position/place/opinion to another. Since minor change does not require or encourage widespread support or enthusiasm, by nature mass movements incline toward significant, abrupt, and divisive change. Hoffer points out that such movements can extend beyond simple revolutions to include religious or nationalistic efforts, the latter serving as “the most copious and durable source of mass enthusiasm.”
Hoffer makes the interesting point that both the failed and the successful—two groups at extreme ends of the societal spectrum—attribute their lot in life to external factors. Those who fail view the world as the cause, and those who succeed “are at bottom convinced that their success is the result of a fortuitous combination of circumstances.” The latter group are afraid to mess with the status quo because they’re afraid it will go all wonky and ruin them, while the former are already ruined and have nothing to lose. The fact that “the resistance to change and the ardent desire for it spring from the same conviction” interests me exceedingly, as we tend to view these groups as polar opposites.
According to Hoffer, discontent must be coupled with other factors to create a strong desire for change. One such factor is a feeling of power. Poverty-stricken individuals, as well as those practicing subsistence farming and the like, are, according to TTB, awed by their surroundings to the extent that they strive to simply maintain the status quo and thus their existence. Again, this counteracts popular notions that poor people always want revolution and rich people want stability—that can be true, but only under certain circumstances. Hoffer shows that those involved in the French Revolution, the Russian revolution, and the National Socialist movement in Germany all derived a feeling of power from faith in something or someone (a leader, science, human progress and enlightenment, military techniques, etc.) that gave them a desire for change.