Bungling

 

On Page 49 of his book, The Passionate State of Mind, Eric Hoffer has two entries which I will quote and then comment on.

 

Hoffer: “          76

 

It seems that when we concentrate for a time on something that is new and difficult we acquire a sense of foreignness which we carry over as we shift to familiar fields. Thus it happens that those who set their minds on tackling the wholly new often end up by seeing the familiar as if it were new and difficult, and expend their energies in directing and regulating affairs which usually function automatically.”

 

My response: Our being inept and fumbling when tackling the novel can also carry over into dealing with the automatized, routine affairs well established. What we know how to do automatically is more sophisticated than we realize, when we try to smooth out consciously what we intuitively and subconsciously did quietly and without a hitch, previously. This indicates that there is still much learning and planning going on in our implicit and subconscious phases of conscious planning that are not yet well understood, let alone well administered or practiced.

 

Hoffer: “          77

 

A living faith is basically a faith in the future. Hence he who would inspire faith must give the impression that he can peer into the future, and that everything is happening under his guidance—even when it turns out disastrously—had been foreseen and foretold.”

 

My response: The demagogue, dictator or guru at the head of a mass movement is not infallible or omniscient, but he must so present himself as such, and his adoring followers must believe this of him too.