Thomas Bethell, wrote a biography on Eric Hoffer. Here is what he writes, about Hoffer, on Page 3 of his biography about Hoffer, The Longshoreman Philosopher: “Hoffer was above all an original thinker and an outstanding writer. It is a precious combination. He subscribed to many journals and he followed current events. But he never followed any intellectual fashion.
He was free of the practical pressures that steer so many people of an intellectual disposition into conventional channels of thought. He lay beyond peer pressure, grant-hunting, and current intimidation that stultify much of the academic world today.”
Hoffer was largely a pure loner, a pure individualist that individual-lived. This great soul was not bound by an intellectual clique, a departmental bias or hegemony on thinking among professors, or a need to cater to others for their approval.
When we group-live, run in packs and settle for lives of quiet desperation, we become mediocrities, shrunken souls, and that is not what the Good Spirits had in mind for us.
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