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Some quotes and thoughts on Eric Hoffer's The True Believer, which I've been reading this week...
“All active mass movements strive, therefore, to interpose a fact-proof screen between the faithful and the realities of the world… The facts on which the true believer bases his conclusions must not be derived from his experience or observation but from holy writ."
Encouraging the faithful to directly engage with reality, via one's own senses and experiences, would provide a firm footing outside the movement. If you can judge for yourself, you can question, disrupt, leave, & undermine the movement. Better to be wholly dependent on doctrine.
“If a doctrine is not unintelligible, it has to be vague; and if neither unintelligible nor vague, it has to be unverifiable.”
"It is obvious, therefore, that in order to be effective a doctrine must not be understood, but has rather to be believed in. We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand."
“Strict orthodoxy is as much the result of mutual suspicion as of ardent faith.”
Hoffer also points out that loyalty accrues to the movement, not to fellow true believers. Policing the thoughts and speech of others can be a means of advancement.
Hoffer also points out that loyalty accrues to the movement, not to fellow true believers. Policing the thoughts and speech of others can be a means of advancement.
“A mass movement attracts and holds a following not because it can satisfy the desire for self-advancement, but because it can satisfy the passion for self-renunciation.”
Renounce everything about yourself to become your most authentic self!
Renounce everything about yourself to become your most authentic self!
“An effective mass movement cultivates the idea of sin... To confess and repent is to slough off one’s individual distinctness and separateness, and salvation is found by losing oneself in the holy oneness of the congregation.”
A person with a lot of shame is easily manipulated.
A person with a lot of shame is easily manipulated.
“It is of interest to note the means by which a mass movement accentuates and perpetuates the individual incompleteness of its adherents. By elevating dogma above reason, the individual’s intelligence is prevented from becoming self-reliant."
The gender identity movement specifically encourages believers to rely on others for validation—and encourages believers to see an absence of validation as an attack on their right even to exist.
https://twitter.com/newthoughtcrime/status/1312335355585200131
https://twitter.com/newthoughtcrime/status/1312335355585200131
“Self-contempt, however vague, sharpens our eyes for the imperfections of others. We usually strive to reveal in others the blemishes we hide in ourselves.”
Projection, projection everywhere, but not a drop to drink!
Projection, projection everywhere, but not a drop to drink!
The many accusations that critics of gender ideology 'hate' trans people are revealing. You can criticize an ideology and its consequences without harboring any ill will toward believers as individuals. But a movement built on self-hate will see hatred wherever it looks.
“When we lose our individual independence in the corporateness of a mass movement, we find a new freedom—freedom to hate, bully, lie, torture, murder and betray without shame and remorse.”
“Thus, though hatred is a convenient instrument for mobilizing a community for defense, 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.”
Propaganda "serves more to justify ourselves than to convince others; and the more reason we have to feel guilty, the more fervent our propaganda.”
“Every divide is used to cut off the faithful from intercourse with unbelievers.”
Hoffer says it’s crucial to strain or break existing ties with friends and family that may threaten the hold of the movement over an individual. https://twitter.com/newthoughtcrime/status/1312336317909528577
Hoffer says it’s crucial to strain or break existing ties with friends and family that may threaten the hold of the movement over an individual. https://twitter.com/newthoughtcrime/status/1312336317909528577
“The fanatic is not really a stickler to principle. He embraces a cause not primarily because of its justness and holiness but because of his desperate need for something to hold on to.”
Interesting insight on the many about-faces...
Interesting insight on the many about-faces...
“It is the true believer’s ability to “shut his eyes and stop his ears” to facts that do not deserve to be either seen or heard which is the source of his unequaled fortitude and constancy.”
“There is thus an illiterate air about the most literate true believer. He seems to use words as if he were ignorant of their true meaning. Hence, too, his taste for quibbling, hair-splitting and scholastic tortuousness.”
B-b-b-but clownfish!
B-b-b-but clownfish!
On reducing art to propaganda: “The true-believing writer, artist or scientist does not create to express himself, or to save his soul or to discover the true and the beautiful. His task, as he sees it, is to warn, to advise, to urge, to glorify and to denounce.”
. @threadreaderapp please unroll
