A Word

 

Eric Hoffer on Pages 76 and 77 of his book, The True Believer, talks of why the frustrate are most willing to sacrifice themselves for a mere word. I quote him and then comment on what he wrote.

 

Hoffer (H after this): “                               55

 

It is not altogether absurd that people should be ready to die for a button, a flag, a word, an opinion, a myth and so on. It is on the contrary the least reasonable thing to give one’s life for something palpably worth having. For surely one’s life is the most real thing of all things real, and without it there can be no having of things worth having. Self-sacrifice cannot be a manifestation of tangible self-interest. Even when we are ready to die not to get killed, the impulse to fight springs less from self-interest than from intangibles such as tradition, honor (a word), and, above all, hope. Where there is no hope, people either run, or allow themselves to be killed without a fight. They will hang on to life as in a daze. How else explain the fact that millions of Europeans allowed themselves to be led into annihilation camps and gas chambers, knowing beyond doubt that they were being led to death? It was not the least of Hitler’s formidable powers that he knew how to drain his opponents (at least in continental Europe) of all hope. His fanatical conviction that he was building a new order that would last a thousand years communicated itself both to followers and antagonists. To the former it gave the feeling that in fighting for the Third Reich they were in league with eternity, while the latter felt that to struggle against Hitler’s new order was to defy an inexorable fate.

 

It is of interest that the Jews who submitted to extermination in Hitler’s Europe fought recklessly when transferred to Palestine. And though it is said that they fought in Palestine because they had no choice—they had to fight or have their throats cut by the Arabs—it is still true that their daring and reckless readiness for self-sacrifice sprang not from despair but form their fervent preoccupation with the revival of an ancient land and an ancient people. They, indeed, fought and died for cities not yet built and gardens not yet planted.”

 

My response: People that have transitioned from being frustrated to being true believers will give their lives for their holy cause, or some intangible like a flag, a slogan or button. If people feel they cause is intact, and that there is hope for the future, they will fight ferociously and fearlessly for their cause—this is why Islam spread across the world 1500 years ago or so; the soldiers fought with unsurpassed courage for their faith.

 

Still, it is more important and ethical to find a reason to live for not die for. And, an army of anarchist-indiviudator supercitizens, would not be true believers in the American Way, but they would fight as fiercely to the last man as any army of true believers that tackled them.