LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
M ass movements seem to be massing up these days, with protesters pulling down statues here and rally-goers pulling off face masks there... and demagogues pulling a fast one everywhere, calling for nationalism or socialism or nativism or iconoclasticism or isolationism (for at least 14 days). It’s this “–ism” versus that “–is- not -ism” with everyone becoming some kind of zealot, extremist, radical, or fanatic. We’re all in danger of turning into what Eric Hoffer called “true believers.” Eric Hoffer (1898-1983) was an American social and moral philosopher who never set foot in a classroom – at least not until he was appointed adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1964.
Hoffer had a hardscrabble childhood in the Bronx. His German immigrant parents died young. And he hit the road and spent decades as a migrant farm worker, living on Skid Row between harvests and carrying nothing with him but a sack of books and a library card for each town he passed through. Rejected by the Army at the onset of WWII, he found a job as a longshoreman on the San Francisco docks where he worked for the next 21 years. All that time he was studying – and writing – philosophy. Hoffer’s great theme was the relation of the masses of men to the mass movements of mankind. He focused, naturally, on the individual’s relationship to the Imperialism, Communism, and Fascism that had almost destroyed mankind during the 20th century. His opinion was, to put it in 21st century language, “This relationship needs work.” Hoffer came to public notice with his 1951 best-selling book, The True Believer – Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements .
American Consequences
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