No Faith

 

On Page 94 of his book, The Passionate State of Mind, Eric Hoffer has two entries which I quote and will comment on.

 

 

Hoffer: “          165

 

When we have no faith in the future we incline to arrange our lives so that we can predict the future. We either make our existence a rigid routine or pile up all manner of defenses to make it secure. The craving for security stems from a need for predictability, and its intensity is in inverse proportion to our faith in the future.

 

 

My response: When we maverize and feel confident that we can directly and forthrightly deal with whatever comes down the pike.

 

When we nonindividuated and run in packs, we are such low self-esteem, that we crave security and control.

 

 

Hoffer: “          166

 

Of all the ways of filling one’s life and of creating the illusion of purpose and worth, none seems so effective as the voluntary subjugation to a set of duties. The satisfaction derived from the daily performance of duties is so unalloyed that the inclination is strong to pile up duty after duty and revel in their performance.”

 

My response: If we would but peace at peace, exert powerful wills, and maverize, then we would have an automatic, solid sense of purpose and worth, and there would be no need to pile up duties in a desperate, vain attempt to justify our lives.