rachaelwillguideyou
Virgin
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2025
- Posts
- 84
The MAGA Cult / True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
- Thread starter rachaelwillguideyou
- Start date
JohnEngelman
Virgin
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2022
- Posts
- 4,572
My Review
John Engelman138 reviews2 followers
May 3, 2023
“The True Believer,” by Eric Hoffer kept me from becoming a true believer. The summer of 1970 found me with an identity crises. I had learned enough about the War in Vietnam to conclude that it was not the moral crusade I needed it to be. Instead it was a dirty war against a nation that wanted us to leave them alone. For several years as a teenager the thought of fighting for freedom and democracy in Vietnam was important to my self-image.
In the summer of 1970 I began to participate in what was called “the socialist summer school.” It was directed by a Trotskyite organization called “the Young Socialist Alliance.” YSA was popular at the time because the War in Vietnam was unpopular. We would read a pamphlet and meet the next week to discuss it.
The appeal of Trotskyism was the belief that if Leon Trotsky had won the power struggle against Joseph Stalin that followed the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, the Soviet Union would have achieved the idealistic goals of the Russian Revolution of 1917.
I was going to college at the time, but I had no career plans.
I began to read “The True Believer.” When I read, “Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves,” I felt that Eric Hoffer was writing about me.
The parent organization of the Young Socialist Alliance was the Socialist Workers Party. This had formed in 1938. It originally consisted of former Communist Party members who supported Trotsky against Stalin.
As I read “The True Believer” I noticed that the Socialist Workers Party consisted largely of older people who had failed in their efforts to become doctors and lawyers.
Most members of the Young Socialist Alliance left the organization when the War in Vietnam ended. They suffered no harm to their eventual careers and mental health. I am not sure I would have been that fortunate.
“The True Believer” is about the motives and behavior of political and religious fanatics. The book was published in 1951, so Hoffer mainly writes about Nazis and Bolsheviks, although he also mentions the history of Christianity and Islam.
Adolf Hitler had failed in his efforts to become an artist and an architect. Joseph Goebbels had failed to become a playwright. Rank and file members of the Nazi Party were former members of Germany’s middle class who had lost their status during the German inflation of the 1920’s and the Great Depression.
Vladimir Lenin had distinguished himself in law school and could have become a successful lawyer. Nevertheless, most members of his Bolshevik Party had graduated from college to discover that in the stagnant economy of pre revolutionary Russia they needed family connections to get college level jobs. Similar people had earlier been partisans of the French Revolution.
If enough people in a country become fanatics a revolutionary situation can develop. First talented intellectuals Hoffer calls “men of words” discredit the status quo. Then fanatics take over. Finally, men of action consolidate the new government.
According to the Pew Research Center a poll taken in October 5, 1964 indicated that 77 percent of the American people thought the government did the right thing “all or most of the time.” By May 1, 2022 this had declined to 20 percent.
On the right we have the alt right. These consist of those who think Donald Trump won the presidential election of 2020 and who deny climate change. They blame their problems on non whites at home and abroad, Jews – who they do not think are white, although Jewish skin is as light as theirs and mine – and liberals. Their real problem is that automation and computer technology are eliminating the better paying jobs they have the intelligence to learn.
On the left we have people who may be called adherents to the “Theology of Woke.” They sympathized with the “mainly peaceful protests” that followed the death of George Floyd, but which caused an estimated two billion dollars in damage. They want us to defund or even eliminate the police, and to let criminals out of prison. They are in favor of racial reparations. They try to suppress those with opinions they dislike.
Adherents to the Theology of Woke are usually more intelligent and better educated than fanatics on the right. Nevertheless, in college most of them majored in subjects that interested them (like I did!) rather than subjects that would make them interesting to employers. Like partisans of the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution, they are educated beyond their circumstances.
Beyond the borders of the United States there are Muslim fanatics. These enter stagnant Mid Eastern economies that have no use for them, or they move to first world countries and are unable to earn first world incomes. They long for the affections of seventy two virgins in Paradise because they are unable to attract and support a wife on earth.
So, “The True Believer” continues to be relevant.
My main criticism of this book is that the footnotes are placed at the end. They would have been easier to read if they were placed at the end of each page.
An additional criticism is that Hoffer does not distinguish between destructive mass movements which lead to tyrannies if they are successful and positive mass movements. The labor movement achieved better living standards for working class people. The feminist movement achieved equal rights for women. The civil rights movement achieved equal rights for blacks.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show...arch=true&from_srp=true&qid=9EpAyXBSOf&rank=1
Last edited:
JohnEngelman
Virgin
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2022
- Posts
- 4,572
In addition to being a profound explanation of political and religious fanaticism, The True Believer is a good introduction to the world of the mind. Eric Hoffer proves that one does not need a college education to be well educated.
73Seahawks
Virgin
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2024
- Posts
- 2,179
Subscribed and following this discussion thread.
