Extrinsic

 

On Page 74 of his book, The Passionate State of Mind, Eric Hoffer has two entries which I quote and then comment on.

 

Hoffer: “          126

 

To find the cause of our ills in something outside of ourselves, something specific that can be spotted and eliminated, is a diagnosis that cannot fail to appeal. To say that the cause of our troubles is not in us but is the Jews, and pass immediately to the extermination of the Jews, is a prescription that is likely to find a wide acceptance.”

 

My response: Usually what is going wrong is our fault intrinsically and the way to solve it is address it on a personal level. We must be wary of external scapegoats to target. Much cruelty and injustice lie in that direction.

 

 

 

 

Hoffer: “          127

 

There is something of the irresistibility of a chemical reaction—something that proceeds independently of our consciousness and the will—in the penetration of a generally held opinion and its tinging of our inner life. That which corrodes the souls of the persecuted is the monstrous inner agreement with the prevailing prejudice against them.”

 

My response: People run in packs, so the big lies told to brainwash to dominant tribe or groups and provide them with justification for persecuting minorities and individuals in their nation, is a story of indoctrination and hereditary falsehood often believed unquestioningly by the persecutors and the persecuted.

 

Only a reared generation of individuating supercitizens would be immune to being brainwashed into hating a competing group based upon religious or political bigotry narrated and advocated by those in power.