Book Review: The True Believer
The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
Author: Eric Hoffer
First Perennial Library, 1989, New York.
First published in 1951, this was one of very few books th
en that probed into the mind of a true believer whose blind faith and single-minded allegiance had nearly destroyed the world in the last century. 50 years on, some of Hoffer’s analyses still ring true for fundamentalists, extremists and even terrorists which we now labeled these true believers.
What makes Hoffer’s book so remarkable is his ability to filter out the common ingredients that gave rise to mass movements hitherto and traced them to their roots. And he ended up in the psyche of an insecure and frustrated individual. This book review tells more.
Some notes on the author is essential to do justice to his book. Hoffer was no academic; in fact, he had little formal schooling and largely a self-taught man. Born in 1902, he lost his eyesight to some unknown illness. Strangely, he regained them when he was fifteen. Fearing he might lose them again, he plunged himself into books from then onwards, and it was said he was seldom seen without a book in his hands. Fortunately for him and for us, light did not desert him and remain with him till his death in 1983.
Son of German immigrants, Hoffer’s initial interest in the subject matter came from the rise and fall of Nazi Germany, though the book deals with all mass movements. He was disturbed by the fact a civilised and educated nation like Germany could have succumbed to the rhetorics of a mere rabble-rouser.
That question finally led him to fame with the publication of The True Believer which was deemed original in its own right. His non-academic background largely contributed the book’s originality since he was not strait-jacketed by the dominant thoughts in his times. Though some might feel uncomfortable with his sweeping generalisations without the rigors of scientific analysis, I do not see it as a major defect since the subject matter could never be duplicated in a lab under control environments. The best one can achieve is to devise clever questionnaires and surveys for surviving participants of mass movements which clearly beyond the reach and resources of Hoffer. However, his non-academic background also contributed to his not so tightly-knitted thought processes. Take this paragraph for instance:
“The discontent generated in backward countries…is not primarily resentment against exploitation by domineering foreigners. It is rather the result of a crumbling or weakening of tribal solidarity and communal life.” (Hoffer, p38).
On first reading, the description seemed intelligent. On second perusal, I realised the “weakening of” backward countries is and can only be made possible with the “exploitation by domineering foreigners” and vice-versa. There is something tautological about his argument. Fortunately, this anomaly, though not the only one, is not frequent.
All in all, this is a brilliant and deeply insightful book for anyone who wants to peek into what lurks inside the minds of true believers or anyone who wishes to lead them.
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Summary and Analysis (which also includes my observations and opinions)
Hoffer contends there are “family resemblances” among the mass movements. It does not matter whether the movements stemmed from purely religious convictions or atheistic ideologies; Be it the exodus led by Moses, or the French Revolution, Taiping Rebellion, Nazi Germany, they share traits that can be traced to the psyche of an insecure and frustrated individual.
Early converts
The early and most ready converts come not from the down and trodden who barely make ends meet but those whose misfortune or poverty is relatively recent. For example, a man who sees his fortune fall from US$10,000 per month to US$1,000 is more likely to take to the street with Molotov cocktails than a farmer who year-in-year-out struggles with US$100 a month.
The settings
If the settings are not ripe, no matter how gifted the individual or how holy is his cause, he can never whip up a mass following. However, if the settings are right, the death of the founder is not paramount to the continuation of the movement since another can slip effortlessly into the role. If Adolf Hitler, say, was killed during WW1, would there still be a Nazi Germany and subsequently WW2? I doubt anyone can predict the outcome. Yet, John Maynard Keynes, arguably the most brilliant and influential economist of the 20th century, prophesied the punitive reparations demanded by the Versailles Treaty would incur the wrath of Germans and thereby laying grounds for another global war. He expressed it in his “The Economical Consequences of Peace”, published in 1919, when Adolf Hitler was only one of the many angry Germans without a job and without a future.
“If we aim deliberately at the impoverishment of Central Europe, vengeance, I dare predict, will not limp. Nothing can then delay for long that final civil war between the forces of reaction and the despairing convulsions of revolution, before which the horrors of the late German war will fade into nothing, and which will destroy… the civilization and progress of our generation.” (Keynes)
With or without Adolf Hitler, the stage was set with the Versailles Treaty and war inevitable.
Indoctrination
Next come indoctrination by which the masses are made think in line with their superiors. Therefore, the masses can be sent to their deaths or let live, and they will have no misgivings one way or the other. One could not but instantly recognise the religious nature of the French Revolution, Nazi Germany, Russian Revolution and Imperial Japan. They have their articles of faiths, symbols, ceremonies, saints and martyrs. Such religiousification has the power to absolve the masses from any responsibility associated with their doings. Incidentally, the most heinous crimes against humanity were committed by most “religious” people such as those during the Spanish Inquisition, Crusades, as well as in Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Their belief in their God, their infallible leader, their divine Emperor, had desensitized them enough to commit the most heinous of crimes as though they were performing the most sacred of acts.
Scapegoat
“Even if there is no God, it is a social necessity that we create one,” wrote (I think) Plato. So, even if there is no enemy, it is also a social necessity that we create one too? Yes, says Hoffer. An enemy serves as a unifying agent that will hold the movement together. Unavoidably, not all people agree with each other; thereby, creating antagonism between factions within the movement as well as between movements. But by recognising the fact that they have a common enemy, they will unite and put up a united front against a real or imaginary enemy. Hoffer wrote of a Japanese mission in 1932 to study the Nazi movement. One of them replied he was impressed and wished they could have something like that in Japan. But they could not because they had not got any Jews.
Jews served as an convenient and easy enemy because they were a disperse lot, with no nation to speak of or an organisation they can claim their own. And more importantly, they could not fight back.
The scapegoat theory is similar to what I have developed previously during my usual musings. I opine that “if a nation come to agree and recognise a common enemy, the nation will unite; however, if a nation come to agree and recognise possible enemies among and within them, the nation will collapse.” Hatred is a powerful emotive force and is indiscriminate of race, gender, age and intellect. Say, an unemployed Singaporean with a PhD, it is not too difficult to fan his flames of hatred towards foreign workers as culprits of his plight, given today’s depressing economic situation here. He listens not to his head but his heart.
So far, I have covered what I think to be the crucial elements of the book. Of course, there are more to the book than what I have listed above. Hoffer gave examples, lots of them, and a more in-depth analysis and breakdown of each element. Nothing beats reading the book itself.
Leo Kee Chye
Friday, July 4, 2003
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leokeechye@gmail.com
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Sociology
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Sociology