Book Review: The True Believer

Book Review: The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements.  Eric Hoffer. Harper Collins, New York. (1951).

It’s time to take a new look at an old classic.  I had long heard about Eric Hoffer, longshoreman and philosopher but never read him . In the light of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai I decided to take a look at this old chestnut. It turns out that the old philosopher has a lot to teach us.  Hey world, listen up.

Hoffer, Acute Observer of Human Behavior

Eric Hoffer, born in NYC, worked at hard labor all his life, as a migrant field worker and in restaurants. In the latter part of his life  he was a stevedore on the San Francisco docks.  A brilliant man, self-taught, living and working on the hard-bitten edges of society, Hoffer was an astute observer of his fellow man.  He had witnessed how the mass movements of Nazism and Communism had swept through Germany and Russia and the terrible destruction and untold grief and despair these movements left in their wakes.

Mass Movements Attract Those Who See No Hope for Themselves

In Hoffer’s time Freud’s psychoanalytic theories held sway in the world of psychology.   Hoffer, not a psychologist , turned all this on its head and suggested something novel-that those who succumbed to mass movements were people who wanted to “be rid of an unwanted self.”  In other words, a mass movement appeals to certain people, not because it offers them a place to shine and advance as an individual, but because it satisfies a “passion for self-renunciation.”

A Sense of Purpose and Meaning for Empty Lives

Sixty years on, Hoffer’s language is a bit antiquated.  Stay with him. He is describing people for whom life is unbearable.  Although he does not use the words “depression”  or “despair”, it is clear that this is what he is talking about.  The people who are attracted to mass movements crave a rebirth, a chance to acquire “hope, a sense of purpose and worth by identification with a holy cause.” They want something to make their lives worth living.

Hoffer’s Writing  Relevant to Terrorism Today

What does this have to do with terrorism? As I suggested my blog, Why Do they Kill?,  it may well be that large numbers of young men who are joining terrorist networks, are people who see no future for themselves in their own societies.  Why do al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba focus their hatred on western and developing societies?

Could it be that the world is globalizing so quickly, that these young men see  no role for themselves within it?  Perhaps someone ought to ask them  whether they see a dynamic future for themselves on the planet.  If not, you can bet their hopelessness has something to do with the choice to join a terrorist group.  At least, in committing violence, these young people can experience glory and feel powerful, if only for a few hours.   For them that may be better than futility and emptiness.

Eradicate Terrorism? Look to Hoffer for Ideas

Hoffer’s analysis of exactly which sectors of society join mass movements (the newly poor, the abjectly poor, misfits, those who are bored) is superb.  He also lists factors that encourage and support self-sacrifice. (Hoffer would have had a field day with al Qaeda!).  He also looks at the role of factors like hatred, persuasion and coercion and leadership in holding these movements together.  If we want to eradicate terrorism, Hoffer is a great teacher to look to.

I take my hat off to Eric Hoffer.  I wish I’d found this book a long time ago. I will be studying it for a long time to come.

Questions of Inquiry:

1. What do you think of Hoffer’s idea about the “unwanted self” and its applicability to terrorism?

2.  What other books and ideas do you know about that are helpful in understanding the phenomenon of terrorism?

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