On Page 50 of his book, The Passionate State of Mind, Eric Hoffer has two entries which I quote and then comment on.
Hoffer: “ 78
The only way to predict the future is to have the power to shape the future. Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.”
My response: This brilliant insight is also quite chilling: the dictator running a totalitarian state can make his declarations and his lies come true. That dispensation is not one that any sensible human wants to live under.
Hoffer: “ 79
Those that are in love with the present can be cruel and corrupt but not genuinely vicious. They cannot be methodically and consistently ruthless.”
My response: This bleak but factual take on human behavior reveals that individuals live in the present and can be corrupt and cruel but not genuinely vicious. It is the fanatics in an active mass movement, before or after the revolution has been won, who are exercising a most pure, consistent form of altruist-collectivist ethics, and their methodic, consistently ruthless cruelty knows no limits, and no let-up.
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