What Eric Hoffer Taught Me

I have reading, studying and interpreting his works since 1972. I believe that I finally understand what he was trying to say to the public. I am in the midst of writing several books intent upon explaining his ten books, one at at time, from my point of view. It may take me ten years to complete--if I ever do--but I am about on a third book of his right now. Hoffer was an an atheist, or an agnostic at most. He believed that evil existed. He believed that evil was a powerful, perhaps dominant moral, political and socioeconomic force at work in this world. Group-living, especially fanatical or extremist groups, like movements or religious cults, was the core of evil in this world. What is passionate and emotional tends to be extreme or fanatical. With centralized group power, where group illusions prevail and lying is a way of life, not just lying as serial speakers. From Hoffer I gleaned that what is groupist is evil, extreme, natural, passionate and ignorant. I flipped the coin of meaning over, concluding then that what is good is individual, apart, moderate, dispassionate, rational, informed and artificial. Being a man of deep religious faith, I attribute the status of being spiritually evil to those natural, historical, political and sociological phenomena which Hoffer painted as morally or biologically evil. Those humans that embody or champion these aggregate values in a personal or organized way are serving Satan, their master. The good values and traits that I listed and presented previously are those exemplified by God and his followers. Out of these few simple ideas and presuppositions, I have erected my Mavellonialist philosophy.