Hoffer writes at length about true believers that loath themselves, and are so frustrated with their own selves and their miserable existence that they will hitch their wagon to any passing star or cause so they are able to forget their sorry existence.
Similarly, Max Stirner refers to involuntary egoists that are alienated from themselves, enthralled by and subjugated by their allegiance to some hollow word, cause or empty abstraction.
Both Hoffer and Stirner worked to alert us to these altruistic excesses as individuals flee their egoistic interest for comfort and false hope gained by surrendering to some overarching ideal.
The self is subsumed to this holy cause. To force others to convert and worship this spook too, the true believers will use terror and murder to win converts. People are compelled for their own good, it is counseled to the public. All need to join up to spread the reign of the noble cause. Evil and cruelty flow out from these bloated abstractions that indeed are hypostasized phantasms wreak havoc on all encountering it.
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