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= The_True_Believer =
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Introduction
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'The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements' is a
non-fiction book authored by the American social philosopher Eric
Hoffer. Published in 1951, it depicts a variety of arguments in terms
of applied world history and social psychology to explain why mass
movements arise to challenge the 'status quo'. Hoffer discusses the
sense of individual identity and the holding to particular ideals that
can lead to extremism and fanaticism among both leaders and followers.
Hoffer initially attempts to explain the motives of various types of
personalities that give rise to mass movements and why certain efforts
succeed while others fail. He articulates a cyclical view of history
and explores why and how said movements start, progress, and end.
Whether intended to be cultural, ideological, religious, or whatever
else, Hoffer argues, mass movements are broadly interchangeable even
when their stated goals or values differ dramatically.
This makes sense, in Hoffer's view, given the frequent similarities
between them in the psychological influences on their adherents. Thus,
many will often flip from one movement to another, Hoffer asserts, and
the often shared motivations for participation entail practical
effects. Since, whether radical or reactionary, the movements tend to
attract the same sort of people in his view, Hoffer describes them as
fundamentally using the same tactics and rhetorical tools. As
examples, he often refers to the purported political enemies,
communism and fascism, and to the religions, Christianity and Islam.
The first and best-known of Hoffer's books, 'The True Believer' has
been published in twenty-three editions between 1951 and 2002. He
later touched upon similar themes in other works. Interest in the book
has been expressed by American President Dwight D. Eisenhower and by
American Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton.
Though the book has received wide acclaim, it has also spurred ongoing
academic analysis and controversy. The core thesis of the
interchangeability of mass movements and the movements' inherent
weakness which can cause adherents to slide into dogma and absolutism
has attracted substantial challenge; many scholars have cited
historical examples of solid group identities that rarely became
interchangeable with other communities. Hoffer himself has said that
he did not intend his analysis to condemn all mass movements in all
contexts, and particularly cited figures such as Jesus of Nazareth who
promoted positive ideals. However, he continued to emphasize the
central argument of 'The True Believer'.
Part 1. The Appeal of Mass Movements
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Hoffer states that mass movements begin with a widespread "desire for
change" from discontented people who place their locus of control
outside their power and who also have no confidence in existing
culture or traditions. Feeling their lives are "irredeemably spoiled"
and believing there is no hope for advancement or satisfaction as an
individual, true believers seek "self-renunciation". Thus, such people
are ripe to participate in a movement that offers the option of
subsuming their individual lives in a larger collective. Leaders are
vital in the growth of a mass movement, as outlined below, but for the
leader to find any success, the seeds of the mass movement must
already exist in people's hearts.
While mass movements are usually some blend of nationalist, political
and religious ideas, Hoffer argues there are two important
commonalities: "All mass movements are competitive" and perceive the
supply of converts as zero-sum; and "all mass movements are
interchangeable". As examples of the interchangeable nature of mass
movements, Hoffer cites how almost 2000 years ago Saul, a fanatical
opponent of Christianity, became Paul, a fanatical apologist and
promoter of Christianity. Another example occurred in Germany during
the 1920s and the 1930s, when Communists and Fascists were ostensibly
bitter enemies but in fact competed for the same type of angry,
marginalized people; Nazis Adolf Hitler and Ernst Röhm, and Communist
Karl Radek, all boasted of their prowess in converting their rivals.
Part 2. The Potential Converts
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The "New Poor" are the most likely source of converts for mass
movements, for they recall their former wealth with resentment and
blame others for their current misfortune. Examples include the mass
evictions of relatively prosperous tenants during the English Civil
War of the 1600s or the middle- and working-classes in Germany who
passionately supported Hitler in the 1930s after suffering years of
economic hardship. In contrast, the "abjectly poor" on the verge of
starvation make unlikely true believers as their daily struggle for
existence takes pre-eminence over any other concern.
Racial and religious minorities, particularly those only partly
assimilated into mainstream culture, are also found in mass movements.
Those who live traditionalist lifestyles tend to be content, but the
partially assimilated feel alienated from both their forebears and the
mainstream culture ("the orthodox Jew is less frustrated than the
emancipated Jew").
A variety of what Hoffer terms "misfits" are also found in mass
movements. Examples include "chronically bored", the physically
disabled or perpetually ill, the talentless, and criminals or
"sinners". In all cases, Hoffer argues, these people feel as if their
individual lives are meaningless and worthless.
Hoffer argues that the relatively low number of mass movements in the
United States at that time was attributable to a culture that blurred
traditionally rigid boundaries between nationalist, racial and
religious groups and allowed greater opportunities for individual
accomplishment.
Part 3. United Action and Self-Sacrifice
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In mass movements, an individual's goals or opinions are unimportant.
Rather, the mass movement's "chief preoccupation is to foster, perfect
and perpetuate a facility for united action and self-sacrifice". Mass
movements have several means.
Mass movements demand a "total surrender of a distinct self". One
identifies the most as “a member of a certain tribe or family,"
whether religious, political, revolutionary, or nationalist. Every
important part of the true believer's persona and life must ultimately
come from their identification with the larger community; even when
alone, the true believer must never feel isolated and unwatched.
Hoffer identifies this communal sensibility as the reappearance of a
"primitive state of being" common among pre-modern cultures. Mass
movements also use play-acting and spectacle designed to make the
individual feel overwhelmed. awed and proud of their membership in the
tribe, as with the massive ceremonial parades and speeches of the
Nazis.
While mass movements idealize the past and glorify the future, the
present world is denigrated: "The radical and the reactionary loathe
the present." Thus, by regarding the modern world as vile and
worthless, mass movements inspire a perpetual battle against the
present.
Mass movements aggressively promote the use of doctrines that elevate
faith over reason and serve as "fact-proof screens between the
faithful and the realities of the world". The doctrine of the mass
movement must not be questioned under any circumstances. Examples
include the Japanese holdouts, who refused to believe that the Second
World War was over, or the staunch defenders of the Soviet Union, who
rejected overwhelming evidence of Bolshevik atrocities.
To spread and reinforce their doctrine, mass movements use persuasion,
coercion, and proselytization. Persuasion is preferable but practical
only with those already sympathetic to the mass movement. Moreover,
persuasion must be thrilling enough to excite the listener yet vague
enough to allow "the frustrated to... hear the echo of their own
musings in the impassioned double talk". Hoffer quotes Nazi
propagandist Joseph Goebbels: "a sharp sword must always stand behind
propaganda if it is to be really effective". The urge to proselytize
comes not from a deeply held belief in the truth of doctrine but from
an urge of the fanatic to "strengthen his own faith by converting
others".
Successful mass movements need not believe in a god, but they must
believe in a devil. Hatred unifies the true believers, and "the ideal
devil is a foreigner" attributed with nearly supernatural powers of
evil. For example, Hitler described Jews as foreign interlopers and
moreover an ephemeral Jewishness, alleged to taint the German soul,
was as vehemently condemned as were flesh-and-blood Jews. The hatred
of a true believer is actually a disguised self-loathing, as with the
condemnation of capitalism by socialists while Russia under the
Bolsheviks saw more intensive monopolization of the economy than any
other nation in history. Without a devil to hate, mass movements often
falter (for example, Chiang Kai-shek effectively led millions of
Chinese during the Japanese occupation of the 1930s and the 1940s but
quickly fell out of favor once the Japanese were defeated).
Fanaticism is encouraged in mass movements. Hoffer argues that "the
fanatic is perpetually incomplete and insecure" and thus uses
uncompromising action and personal sacrifice to give meaning to his
life.
Part 4. Beginning and End
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Hoffer identifies three main personality types as the leaders of mass
movements, "men of words", "fanatics", and "practical men of action".
No person falls exclusively into one category, and their predominant
quality may shift over time.
Mass movements begin with "men of words" or "fault-finding
intellectuals" such as clergy, journalists, academics, and students
who condemn the established social order (such as Trotsky, Mohammed,
and Lenin). The men of words feel unjustly excluded from or mocked and
oppressed by the existing powers in society, and they relentlessly
criticize or denigrate present institutions. Invariably speaking out
in the name of disadvantaged commoners, the man of words is actually
motivated by a deep personal grievance. The man of words relentlessly
attempts to "discredit the prevailing creeds" and creates a "hunger
for faith" which is then fed by "doctrines and slogans of the new
faith". A cadre of devotees gradually develops around the man of
words, leading to the next stage in a mass movement.
Eventually, the fanatic takes over leadership of the mass movement
from the man of words. While the "creative man of words" finds
satisfaction in his literature, philosophy or art, the "noncreative
man of words" feels unrecognized or stifled and thus veers into an
extremism against the social order. Though the man of words and the
fanatic share a discontent with the world, the fanatic is
distinguished by his viciousness and urge to destroy. The fanatic
feels fulfilled only in a perpetual struggle for power and change.
Examples include Jean-Paul Marat, Maximilien de Robespierre, Benito
Mussolini, and Adolf Hitler.
The book also explores the behavior of mass movements once they become
established as social institutions (or leave the "active phase"). With
their collapse of a communal framework, people can no longer defeat
their abiding feelings of insecurity and uncertainty by belonging to a
compact whole. If the isolated individual lacks opportunities for
personal advancement, development of talents, and action (such as
those found on a frontier), he will seek substitutes. The substitutes
would be pride instead of self-confidence, memberships in a collective
whole like a mass movement, absolute certainty instead of
understanding. The "practical men of action" take over leadership from
the fanatics, marking the end of the "dynamic phase" and steering the
mass movement away from the fanatic's self-destructiveness. "Hitler,
who had a clear vision of the whole course of a movement even while he
was nursing his infant National Socialism, warned that a movement
retains its vigor only so long as it can offer nothing in the
present.... The movement at this stage still concerns itself with the
frustrated--not to harness their discontent in a deadly struggle with
the present, but to reconcile them with it; to make them patient and
meek."
The focus shifts from immediate demands for revolution to establishing
the mass movement as a social institution where the ambitious can find
influence and fame. Leadership uses an eclectic bricolage of
ideological scraps to reinforce the doctrine, borrowing from whatever
source is successful in holding the attention of true believers. For
example, proto-Christians were fanatics, predicting the end of the
world, condemning idolatry, demanding celibacy and sowing discontent
between family members, yet from those roots grew Roman Catholicism,
which mimicked the elaborate bureaucratic structure of the Roman
Empire, canonized early Christians as saints, and borrowed pagan
holidays and rites. In the absence of a practical man of action, the
mass movement often withers and dies with the fanatic (Nazism died as
a viable mass movement with Hitler's defeat and death).
Mass movements that succeed in causing radical change often exceed in
brutality the former regime that the mass movement opposed. The
Bolsheviks in Russia and the Jacobins in France ostensibly formed in
reaction to the oppression of their respective monarchies but proved
themselves far more vicious and brutal in oppressing their opponents.
Hoffer does not take an exclusively negative view of "true believers"
and the mass movements they begin. He gives examples of how the same
forces that give rise to true believer mass movements can be
channelled in more positive ways:
Hoffer argues that the length of the "active phase" of a mass
movement, the most energetic phase when fanatics are in control, can
be predicted with some accuracy. Mass movements with a specific goal
tend to be shorter-lived and feature less terror and bloodshed (such
as the American Revolution). In contrast, an amorphous goal tends to
result in a longer active phase of decades rather than months or years
and also include substantially more bloodshed (such as the Bolsheviks
in Russia, National Socialism in Germany).
In either case, Hoffer suggests that mass movements are accompanied by
a dearth of creative innovation because so much energy is devoted to
the mass movement. For example, in England, John Milton began a draft
of his epic poem 'Paradise Lost' in the 1640s before turning his
literary talents to pamphleteering for the Commonwealth of England,
only to finish the poem and his other major works after a change in
government in 1660.
Reception
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U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower read 'The True Believer' in 1952,
gave copies to friends, and recommended it to others. In 1956, 'Look'
ran an article calling Hoffer "Ike's Favorite Author". British
Socialist Bertrand Russell called the book "as sound intellectually as
it is timely politically."
Frank Meyer in National Review criticized Hoffer for his “cheap
cynicism” and “indiscriminate sniping at all belief, all strongly held
principle, all moral doctrine” and likewise called Eisenhower’s
endorsement “a very curious circumstance… one of sad significance”.
Ted Kaczynski mentioned 'The True Believer' in paragraphs 222 and 230
of Industrial Society and Its Future when describing leftists and
giving his advice about recruiting anti-technology revolutionaries.
'The True Believer' earned renewed attention after the terrorist
attacks of September 11, 2001, and this occurred again also after the
Tea Party protests and the Occupy Wall Street protests around a decade
later.
Hillary Clinton wrote in her 2017 book 'What Happened', a work
discussing her loss to Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential race,
cited 'The True Believer' as a book that she recommended to her staff
during the campaign.
See also
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* Fanaticism
* Identity (social science)
** Identity fusion
** Identity politics
* Ideal (ethics)
* Ideology
* Legitimacy (political)
* Political extremism
* Psychology of self
* Wilhelm Reich
** 'The Mass Psychology of Fascism'
* Revolution
** Revolutionary wave
** 'The Anatomy of Revolution'
* Wishful thinking
License
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License URL:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_True_Believer
