Book Freak 169: The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
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Book Freak 169: The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
In an effective mass movement, the true believer’s yearning for identity finds a place. A sense of belonging is fulfilled, and individual responsibility is then taken out of one’s hands. The movement, and its leader, decide what’s right and wrong. All one needs to do is stay with the movement and the whole gnawing existential issue of what is the p... See more
Antonia Malchik • True believers and mass movements
Andrei Stoica added
All mass movements generate in their adherents a readiness to die and a proclivity for united action; all of them, irrespective of the doctrine they preach and the program they project, breed fanaticism, enthusiasm, fervent hope, hatred and intolerance; all of them are capable of releasing a powerful flow of activity in certain departments of life;
... See moreEric Hoffer • The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements (Perennial Classics)
As an aid in this effort, use is made of a working hypothesis. Starting out from the fact that the frustrated1 predominate among the early adherents of all mass movements and that they usually join of their own accord, it is assumed: 1) that frustration of itself, without any proselytizing prompting from the outside, can generate most of the peculi
... See moreEric Hoffer • The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements (Perennial Classics)
Starting out from the fact that the frustrated1 predominate among the early adherents of all mass movements and that they usually join of their own accord, it is assumed: 1) that frustration of itself, without any proselytizing prompting from the outside, can generate most of the peculiar characteristics of the true believer; 2) that an effective t
... See moreEric Hoffer • The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements (Perennial Classics)
The “true believer” of Hoffer’s title is someone who belongs not to the few but to the many, someone who strives to bring the entire group (the church, the nation, the world even) within the grip of one narrative, the force of one body of belief, the authority of one charismatic Leader. This kind of fanaticism has no interest in Inner Rings; its mo
... See moreAlan Jacobs • How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds
As a result of his (or her) infatuation, existence overflows with purpose. Ambiguity vanishes from the fanatic’s worldview; a narcissistic sense of self-assurance displaces all doubt. A delicious rage quickens his pulse, fueled by the sins and shortcomings of lesser mortals, who are soiling the world wherever he looks.
Jon Krakauer • Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
All mass movements generate in their adherents a readiness to die and a proclivity for united action; all of them, irrespective of the doctrine they preach and the program they project, breed fanaticism, enthusiasm, fervent hope, hatred and intolerance; all of them are capable of releasing a powerful flow of activity in certain departments of life;
... See moreEric Hoffer • The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements (Perennial Classics)
To the frustrated a mass movement offers substitutes either for the whole self or for the elements which make life bearable and which they cannot evoke out of their individual resources.