Feeling Lowest

 

Eric Hoffer, on Pages 96 and 97 of his book, The True Believer, writes the social impact of our feeling we are the lowest of humanity. I quote him and then comment of his content.

 

Hoffer (H after this): “                                74

 

It seems that when we are oppressed by the knowledge of our worthlessness we do not see ourselves as lower than some and higher than others, but as lower than the lowest of mankind. We hate then the whole world, and we pour out our wrath upon the whole of creation.”

 

My response: Again, Hoffer never referred to himself as an egoist, but he sure sounds like one here. Where people, especially groups of frustrated individuals seeking or finding a refuge in a mass movement, naturally corrupt, naturally selfless and self-loathing, sense their own worthlessness, their resentment, bitterness, and utter self-hatred and bankrupt sense of self-esteem paradoxically expressed by them in view and behavior as self-indulgent willingness to destroy the world, feel worthless, that rage will be vented on wiping out all humans and being itself. These are some quite dangerous, nihilistic people on the march.

 

Without self-esteem, self-realization and a moral compass guiding the individual, any nightmare is conceivable when humanity is thrashing about in agony and vented frustration.

 

H: “There is a deep reassurance for the frustrated in witnessing the downfall of the fortunate and the disgrace of the righteous. They see in a general downfall an approach to the brotherhood of all. Chaos, like the grave, is a haven of equality. Their burning conviction that there must be a new life and a new order is fueled by the realization that the old one will have to be razed to the ground before the new one can be built. Their clamor for a millennium is shot through with a hatred for all that exists, and a craving for the end of the world.”

 

My response: If the Evil Spirits can arrange things to their advantage—and they often succeed at getting the social upper hand—if they are able to so frustrate the citizens so they become true believers, these altruist mob-dwellers of no self-esteem and maximum, concentrated self-hatred, will hate all of existence, and they will fight to the death so the holy cause they serve wholeheartedly, is the hammer that smashes Being and Cosmos into a pummeled set of shards smacked to smithereens.

 

H: “                                                            75

 

Passionate hatred can give hatred and meaning to an empty life. Thus people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for both.”

 

My response: People, even atheists or especially atheist as it were, will not tolerate a meaning vacuum (no God, no love, no sensible metanarrative to live for and by) in their lives for very long. Realizing and gaining healthy self-esteem, happiness, contentment, fulfillment and a sense purpose and self-realizing in dedicating oneself to serving the Good Spirits is an ideal means of bringing meaning and love into one’s life, helping oneself and everyone else in the process, hurting none.

 

The nonindividuating, selfless, altruistic joiners cannot bring self-esteem and love into their barren lives because they have come to believe that such blessings and comforts can never be had or recovered by them. This nearly unforgivable sin of concluding things are irretrievably hopeless for their self-identities—something Jesus and the Holy Spirits and Good Spirits never suggested—is not so, but they have come to believe that their situation is hopeless.

 

From this juncture forward, passionate hatred and a fanatical grievance gained by joining a mass movement and serving a holy cause, will give them purpose and focus—let the world beware of these true believers cut loose upon society.

 

H: “                                                                  76

 

Whether it is true or not as Pascal says that ‘all men by nature hate each other,’ and that love and charity are only ‘a feint and false image for at bottom they are but hate,’ one cannot escape the impression that hatred is an all-pervading ingredient in the compounds and combinations of our inner life. All our enthusiasms, devotions, passions and hopes, when they decompose, release hatred. On the other hand it is possible to synthesize an enthusiasm, a devotion and a hope by activating hatred. Said Martin Luther: ‘When my heart is cold and I cannot pray as I should I scourge myself with the thought of the impiety and ingratitude of my enemies, the Pope and his accomplices and vermin, and Zwingli, so that my heart swells with righteous indignation and hatred and I can say with warmth and vehement: ‘Holy be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done!’ And the hotter I grow the more ardent do my prayers become.”

 

My response: Both Pascal and Hoffer did not believe people were basic good and that motive of hatred played a huge even major role in motivating human thoughts, feelings, talk and actions. Hate is a more primal force in us that dominates love.

 

Only as individualists and loners can we develop healthy character and good will sufficient enough to love ourselves and others, and thereby channel our self-loathing into constructive canals of boating.