The Genius of Eric Hoffer

[herculepoirot]

Now for the record I haven't read everything by Eric Hoffer. What I have though written by the "longshoreman philosopher" has given me much to think about. I love his book The True Believer. I was wondering what the Objectivist viewpoint was of this classic text?

[Chris Grieb]

I have not read "The True Believer". I have read some of his later collections. He was a very bright man.

I have a small wondering if the longshoreman bit was a pose.

[Reidy]

After the Great Kiboshing of 1968, the Academic Associates Newsletter, affiliated with Nathaniel and Barbara Branden, published a favorable review (by BB as I recall); Rand never mentioned the book, and word was that People in New York found the review quite upsetting.

[herculepoirot]

I have a small wondering if the longshoreman bit was a pose.

I'm not so sure. I think he honestly hated the New Left, and despised the idea of being an "intellectual". I believe somewhere he said something along the lines of "I'm not a intellectual I work for a living". He claimed to be much prouder of his work, and labor as I longshoreman because it was I sign of his labor. In my opinion he is the perfect example of a "working class Randian hero" if there ever was one. He was self educated, did his work and took pride in it, and wasn't afraid to challenge his supposed "superiors" in the Ivory Tower when he believed they where wrong. I think he personifies what the true "common man" is (not the future of our labor union controlled labor force, but the true men and women of the past who worked for a living not for a constant wage) and that is a man who takes pride in his work and has no time for such things as communism, because they love the fruit of there labors and know that they aren't "oppressed".

Unless a man has talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden. Of what avail is freedom to choose if the self be ineffectual? We join a mass movement to escape individual responsibility, or, in the words of the ardent young Nazi, "to be free from freedom." It was not sheer hypocrisy when the rank-and-file Nazis declared themselves not guilty of all the enormities they had committed. They considered themselves cheated and maligned when made to shoulder responsibility for obeying orders. Had they not joined the Nazi movement in order to be free from responsibility? - Eric Hoffer

[Barbara Branden]

The True Believer by Eric Hoffer

reviewed by Barbara Branden

A nightmare figure haunts the forward motion of every new mass movement, infiltrating its leadership and swelling its ranks—whether the movement be philosophical or religious, social or political—whether it upholds reason or mysticism, freedom or force, the individual or the collective.

This nightmare figure is “the true believer.” He is “the man of fanatical faith,” writes Eric Hoffer in his fascinating, ominously perceptive and immensely valuable book. “He is everywhere on the march, and both by converting and antagonizing, he is shaping the world in his own image.”

The true believer may be the intellectual of the mass movement, the man of words—brilliant, vain, craving status, burning with hatred against a world that has refused him the adulation he craves. He may be the movement’s fanatical organizer—ruthless, self-righteous, petty, arrogant, eager to vent his frustrations, his envy, his bitterness, desperate to lose his despised and blemished self in something larger than self. He may be the lieutenant of the movement, fearless and proud, yet poisoned by self-contempt and a sense of personal failure, submitting wholly and gladly to the will of the leader, glorying in submission, surrendering to the leader not as a means to an end but as a fulfillment. He may be the leader of the movement—the man of daring vision, of harshly iron will, of joy in defiance, of fanatical, blind conviction, possessed of a passionately unyielding hatred and a sense of holy cause, pathologically mistrustful, able to dominate and almost bewitch a small group of able men. He may be a member of the rank and file—longing for the release of faith, for the dream of a glorious future that will replace his bitter, unfulfilling present, eager to be redeemed from the burdens, fears, hopelessness and overwhelming guilts of a meaningless and barren individual existence by absorption into a closely knit whole, rowdy and violent in his actions but obedient and submissive in his spirit, renouncing intellectual independence and its attendant doubts, uncertainties, errors and responsibilities—renouncing spiritual struggle and the sense of wonder—for the easy certitude of dogma, the deep assurance of total surrender.

Who is the true believer? What brings him into being? What psychological and historical forces create him? What inner agonies draw him to the mass movement? How is his presence manifested? These are the questions which, through provocative psychological analysis and brilliant historical example—and despite minor flaws of interpretation which the reader will have little difficulty in identifying—Eric Hoffer attempts to answer.

These are the questions that no student of Objectivism can afford to leave unanswered. Any vital new philosophical system, whatever its tenets, will attract true believers. The psychological needs which normally draw a man to faith, force and bloody destruction may instead lead him to stumble into a philosophy of reason and to seek his perverse fulfillment there. It is precisely as one upholds a rational system of philosophy and fights for a movement based on conviction, not faith, on ideas, not personalities, that one must study, understand and guard against this enemy within one’s own ranks—and, perhaps, within one’s own soul.

[This review originally appeared in the Summer 1969 issue (#1) of Academic Associates' Book News and was posted to Objectivist Living with the reviewer's permission on Monday June 12, 2006. Comments and questions are welcome.]

[Chris Grieb]

Pipesmoker; I'd like to explain my dislike of Hofer being a longshoreman.

There is an idea in some circles that the only real work is done with muscles and hands. Objectivists know that almost all great work comes from the mind.

Holfer did great work with his mind and I can sympathize with his disrespect for modern intellectuals. Ayn Rand felt much the same way.

Let me emphasize that all great work is not just mental. Writing is a physical activity. Creation can only be done in physical world.