Easygoing

 

Eric Hoffer, on Page 60 of his book, The Passionate State of Mind, wrote two entries which I quote and then comment on.

 

Hoffer: “          99

 

An easygoing person is probably more accessible to a realization of eternity—the endless flow of life and death—than one who takes his prospects and duties overseriously. It is the overserious who are truly frivolous.”

 

My response: Here is another Hofferian paradox. The overly serious are truly frivolous, and the genuinely easygoing are substantive. What does he mean with this paradox?

 

Hoffer: “          100

 

The remarkable thing is that we really do love our neighbors as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant with others when we are tolerant with ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves.

 

It is not the love of self but hatred of self which is at the root of the troubles that afflict the world.”

 

My response: I have not read this passage for 20 years or so, and it is clearly the metaethical theory of a rational egoist. If we abuse others, it is because we abused ourselves first. If we hate and are cruel to others, it is because we hate and our cruel to ourselves first.

 

If we love ourselves, we will love our neighbors. If we hate ourselves, we will hate, attack, and hurt our neighbors.

 

I believe Hoffer was a normative egoist.