The next few posts will
be, in light of the cancer of tRUMPism now racing through the body
politic, an effort to divine the nature of cultism. For this
purpose, I will revisit the writings of Eric Hoffer, the itinerant
philosopher who published his seminal work The True Believer,
nearly 70 years ago.
The True Believer,
Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, was written in the
aftermath of the Second World War in an effort to divine the nature
of political movements and, more precisely, what it is about the
converted that leads them to follow blindly as well as why the so
willingly do so. The True Believer is an important work
which, along with Jose Ortega de Gassett's Revolt of the Masses,
should be required reading in every public school. These works are
certainly more profound and penetrating than Orwell's Animal Farm,
and head-and-shoulders above anything written by Ayn Rand or
Henry David Thoreau. But, alas, Hoffer doesn't take prisoners, he
doesn't pander to the masses, instead he reveals what they really are
and why they are so easily misled; features that do not recommend the
work to boards of education.
Query: What makes a mass
movement? Answer: The True Believer. What makes a True Believer?
That is the subject now under discussion.
Prospect of Change:
Many who join an emerging revolutionary movement are drawn by
prospect of change.
“Not so obvious is
the fact that religious and nationalist movements too can be
vehicles for change. Some kind of widespread enthusiasm is apparently
needed for the realization of vast and rapid change.”(2) The
overweening desire for change can originate in a deep emotional need
to climb the social or economic ladder, or it can—as several
historians of American History have pointed out—be motivated by
displaced elites; men of property and standing who have been
shouldered aside by new wealth and new captains of industry and
power. The progressive movement of the late 19th and early
20th centuries in the United States is an example of the
latter phenomenon.
Embracing a radical
prospect of change implies deep unhappiness with the present state of
affairs, and represents an inclination to make war upon the present.
But this war is conducted by a select few of the population. The
very wealthy and well-to-do, of course, are content with the status
quo. But it is not the downtrodden who are the fodder of the
revolutionist, for they know that the situation—any situation—is
hopeless and, if change comes, it is likely not to be beneficial.
No, real mass movements are middle class affairs. It was the lawyers
and burgers (small businessmen) and professionals who led the French
Revolution. The Nazis, at the beginning, were financed by middle
class housewives. It is those who have lost their status, and those
that fear its loss, who compose the building materials of mass
movements.
Renunciation of Self
and Identity Politics:
“There is a fundamental difference between the appeal of a mass movement and the appeal of a practical organization. The practical organization offers opportunities for self-advancement, and its appeal is mainly to self-interest. On the other hand, a mass movement, particularly in its active revivalist phase, appeals not to those intent on bolstering and advancing a cherished self, but to those who crave to be rid of an unwanted self. A mass movement attracts and holds a following not because it can satisfy a desire for self-advancement, but because it can satisfy the passion for self-renunciation.
“People who see their lives as irremediably spoiled cannot find a worthwhile purpose in self-advancement. The prospect of an individual career cannot stir them to a single mighty effort, nor can it evoke in them faith and a single-minded dedication. They look upon self-interest as on something tainted and evil; something unclean and unlucky. Anything undertaken under the auspices of the self seems to them foredoomed. Nothing that has its roots and reasons in the self can be good and noble. Their innermost craving is for a new life—a rebirth—or,failing this, a chance to acquire new elements of pride, confidence, hope, a sense of purpose and worth by an identification with the holy cause. An active mass movement offers them opportunities for both. If they join the movement as full converts they are reborn to a new life in its close-knit collective body, or if attracted as sympathizers they find elements of pride, confidence and purpose identifying themselves with the efforts, achievements and prospects of the movement.”(3)
Those who crave to be rid
of an unwanted self or, perhaps, those who have been made to feel
that one must reject that self. Luther, for instance, taught that we
are, in the eyes of god, nothing but dirty rags. This is a lesson
impressed upon even—and especially—the youngest minds in the
flock. You are nothing, worthless, and irredeemable. Except, that
for some god-forsaken reason, the lord wants to redeem you. Alas,
the connection is made that one can only be made worthy by joining
the elect, by adopting the tenets of the doctrine, by giving
(sacrificing) your soul—like Jacob his son Isaac—upon the altar
of the lord. Only in this way can one become good and noble; can one
achieve any purpose in life.
The “unwanted self”
may not simply be a result of personal failure in life, as Hoffer
would have it. It is also, as any product of parochial upbringing
will tell you, the immediate and enduring consequence of
indoctrination—be it religious, philosophical, or political; an
indoctrination that always terrorizes, especially the young. From
images of filthy rags and worthlessness to Cotton Mather's famous
depiction of god almighty dangling the sinner over the fire pits of
hell, the impressionable young are beaten figuratively—when not
literally—to the altar. How better to ensure future offerings
than to assassinate the emerging self, and bend the remnants to one's
own purposes?
There are parallels
between Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, and the Hitler Youth.
We must fashion their minds before they are old enough to think;
before they have a chance to develop a healthy skepticism; when they
still believe in magic. Santa Claus and sky gods are replaced in due
course with Televangelists and Supermen. From the churches, to
political movements, to the armed forces The breaking down of self
and reforming it into the image of a larger “purpose” permeates
every society. But make no mistake, the price of admission is high,
for the devil wants nothing less than your identity—your soul.
This is the nature of identity politics. And this is why our
elections, have of late, become contests for the very heart and soul
of the nation.
Look about you. The
purpose of the national political convention is to bring the nation
together, to bind up its wounds, as Lincoln would say. Previously,
the parties would intentionally nominate candidates from different
sections of the country—given our history of great sectional
strife. Not any more. Today it is identity politics that rules
supreme. The process must appease not geographical sections but the
various identities that the masses carry into the political arena, be
it race, gender, abortion or anti-abortion, guns. Where we stand on
the issues is not a product of hard reasoning, self-interest, nor
even enlightened self-interest, but is our very identity.
Malleable Identity
If
you can't believe in yourself, you must believe in something. And
that something can be just about anything, for there is a deep-rooted
need to believe.
“It
is rare for a mass movement to be wholly of one character...The
religious movements of the Reformation had a revolutionary aspect
which expressed itself in peasant uprisings, and were also
nationalist movements. Said Luther: ' in the eyes of the Italians we
Germans are merely low Teutonic swine. They exploit us like
charlatans and suck the country to the marrow. Wake up Germany!
The
religious character of the Bolshevik and Nazi revolutions is
generally recognized. The hammer and sickle and swastika are in a
class with the cross. The ceremonial of their parades is as the
ceremonial of a religious procession. They have articles of faith,
saints, martyrs and holy sepulchers. The Bolshevik and Nazi
revolutions are also full-blown nationalist movements....” (4)
just as the American
evangelical religious movement has morphed into the 'moral majority',
a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Republican Party.
It
is worth adding that Stalin was a refugee from an Orthodox Catholic
Seminary, and the swastika was an ancient Christian symbol prominent
in the Catholic church attended by a young Adolph Hitler. Indeed,
in my youth, there was—and maybe still is—a crypto-fascist
periodical published under the banner “The
Cross and the Flag”.
“Since
all mass movements draw their adherents from the same types of
humanity and appeal to the same types of mind, if follows: (a) all
mass movements are competitive, and the gain of one in adherents is
the loss of all the others; (b) all mass movements are
interchangeable. One mass movement readily transforms itself into
another. A religious movement may develop into a social revolution
or a nationalist movement; a social revolution, into militant
nationalism or a religious movement; a nationalist movement into a
social revolution or a religious movement.”(5)
And
so, to fill the vacuousness left by the ridding of one's self, the
True Believer will
grasp at any straw, grab hold of any life-boat. This explains the
compelling migration of the evangelical Christian to the religious
wrong; from the innocuous meeting house to any political arena; from
the sacrifice of self to the sacrifice of all. For you don't ask
questions, and you don't count the dead, when god's on your side.
An Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh.
Flush
this turd, November 3rd.
_________________
- Hoffer, Eric. The True Believer Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements. Copyright 1951. Perennial Library, Harper & Row. New York.
- Ibid. Page 13
- Ibid. Page 21
- Ibid. Page 26
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