On Pages 8 and 85 of his book, The True Believer, Eric Hoffer demonstrates his moderate ethical and ontological philosophy; he describes brilliantly the psychology and behavior of a true believer or fanatic, but he also hints that does not approve of each human allowing himself to become frustrated and not doing anything about it (In fairness to the true believers, if they knew better and were reared up to maverize, most of them would become contented, and would not allow themselves to become passionate, fanatical, selfless and desperate to disappear into any passing holy cause.
I quote Hoffer and then respond to what he writes.
Hoffer (H after this): “ 62
Though they seem at opposite poles, fanatics of all kinds are actually crowded at one end. It is the fanatic and the moderate that are poles apart and never meet.”
My response: It is group-livers and groupists, the joiners, that are naturally fanatical and emotional, more than moderate, logical, temperate, and reasonable as are individuals and loners.
If someone is a pure, rather pronounced loner—but still a decent person—this person is instinctively recognized, attacked, deplatformed, marginalized and excommunicated by groups in his vicinity. The groupist really hate and are hostile to the loner, because he is not a collectivist, and because he is moderate and individual, and these are godly, moral traits that are antithetical to everything the group was formed and kept for. These two natural and acquired traits of his are an actual existential threat to their survival as a cohesive unit, to their group identity, and their neatly arranged social structure of lies and justifications explaining away why they are not leaving the pack and serving the Good Spirits as great souls in the making.
The pack’s whole way of life is a lie: they are popular and social, winners in the eyes of the world, but they are dumber, more evil, and for filled with selfishness, hate and anger, on average than is the typical loner.
They denounce the superior loner as inferior, dumber, more selfish, and sinful than they are.
And he is not naturally any better or smarter than they are; he just dared live alone and maverize on some level.
H: “The fanatics of various hues eye each other with suspicion and are ready to fly at each other’s throat. But they are neighbors and almost of one family. They hate each other with the hatred of brothers. They are as far apart and as close together as Saul and Paul. And it is easier for a fanatic Communist to be converted to fascism, chauvinism or Catholicism than become a sober liberal.
The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatic atheist but the gentle cynic who care not whether there is a God or not. The atheist is a religious person. He believes in atheism as though it were a new religion. He is an atheist with devoutness and unction. According to Renan, ‘The day after that on which the world should no longer believe in God, atheists would be the wretchedest of all men.’ So, too, the opposite of the chauvinist is not the traitor but the reasonable citizen who is in love with the present and has no taste for martyrdom and heroic gesture. The traitor is usually a fanatic—radical or reactionary—who goes over to the enemy to hasten the downfall of a world he loathes. Most of the traitors in the Second World War came from the extreme right. ‘There seems to be a thin line between violent, extreme nationalism and treason.’
The kinship between the reactionary and the radical has been dealt with in Section 52. All of us that lived through the Hitler decade know that the reactionary and the radical have more in common than either has with the liberal or conservative.”
My response: Leftists are a mass movement in America today because they view themselves as noble, democratic, compassionate, and enlightened. They dismiss conservatives and Republicans as fascists and white Christian, patriarchal, oppressive supremacists, and ultra-nationalists. This Big Lie is now believed by liberals too.
Dennis Prager is doing an admirable job seeking to wean liberals away from Leftists, and he likely distinguishes clearly between Republicans and conservatives and domestic fascists.
We want moderate and individualistic liberals and conservatives and independents: we do not want to pay much attention to the Progressives (Radicals/Marxists) or the Fascists (Alt-Rightists). The latter two groups are fanatical, collectivist, malicious, power-hungry, potentially or actually violent, intolerant, authoritarian and up to no good.
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