The Environment Coducive To Creative Output

Tom Shactman, Eric Hoffer's biographer, wrote this on Page 187 of his book, American Iconoclast: "Section Three, 'Creators,' was deeply autobiographical, although the pronoun 'I' did not appear in it.'Those who lack talent expect things to happen without effort,' he asserted, while true creators understood that anything worthwhile took 'persistence and patience.' An affluent society meant problems for creators, who needed to make their own 'scarcity' and produce their own, inner 'economy of spirit' necessary to the creation of important ideas  or works of art. 'The unique and worthwhile in us makes itself felt only in flashes,' Hoffer confessed, and added that it must be caught and savored, lest we be 'without growth or exhilaration.'"

My response: Shactman is pointing out several things: first, the technique, the process, utilized by Hoffer the thinker and writer, to think and write originally, creatively, brilliantly: Hoffer's imaginative insights come to him in flashes, and the talented artist takes and develops those insights by hard, disciplined work. There may a Mozart out there somewhere that effortlessly writes musical masterpieces, but most creators work hard to polish their raw flashes; the creation of masterpieces is not automatic and effortless, It is hard work and real application of one's time and energy to produce something worthwhile.

Second, where rare geniuses just pop up, their background may have produced them by toughening them and disciplining them, giving them adversity to overcome. Where affluence is common, widespread, and largely universal like it is in a Western democracy, then the adverse upbringing that toughened the aspiring creator is absent. Things are so easy, and come so easy,  that the creators loses all desire, or incentive to overcome what is,  to strive, because doing nothing is so easy and present as a choice. 

Where, to repeat what Hoffer thinks and writes, an affluent society meant problems for creators,, who needed to make their own scarcity, and produce their own inner, economy of spirit necessary to the creation or important ideas, or works of arts. In other words, the self-actualizer disciplines himself by fabricating a living style and milieu that keep him from being corrupted by luxury, ease, dissipation, temptations and too many material comforts. I know that Hoffer's one bedroom apartments were very spartan.

Those that are creative must know how to recognize and capture the gist of those flashes of insight, native to their consciousness, and they must work hard to polish, to develop and to  perfect the creative piece. They must create a spartan sense of self-discipline and workstation for production and work, even if that creator enjoys great wealth and material advantage.

 Hoffer is describing his version of how a creator can create originally and effectively.