Soul-Raping

 

On Page 56 of his book, The Passionate State of Mind, Eric Hoffer wrote three entries which I shall quote and then comment on.

 

Hoffer:             90

 

Our sense of power is more vivid when we break a man’s spirit than when we win his heart. For we can win a man’s heart one day and lose it the next. But when we break a proud spirit we achieve something that is final and absolute.”

 

My response: The sadist’s or ideologue act of victorious soul-raping an independent person is evil at its most cruel and vile. The crushed spirit is destroyed forever.

 

Hoffer: “          91

 

When the weak want to give an impression of strength they hint meaningfully at their capacity for evil. It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.”

 

My response: One of Hoffer’s finest insights for the field of psychology and for general understanding of human nature is his observation that people must have pride or a sense of worth about themselves, or they will not last a day.

 

Their pride, or individual self-esteem can be an objective fact, when it is the sense of self-worth reflective of a life of talent honed, hard work, productivity, and decency.

 

Or an individual’s self-regard can be other-esteem or group pride, or group-esteem based upon the group, family or ism that he belongs to.

 

Whether the individual is an individuator or a nonindividuator, whether his self-regard is one of self-esteem or group-esteem, he will have a sense of worth about himself, true and legitimate or fake and illegitimate.

 

The weak lack worldly power, rank, self-esteem, and big muscles, so they, being groupist, brag about their capacity to do evil, which would make them feel strong, even if enacting their life of evil sends them to hell. For it is better to burn and regard oneself as powerful in the world, than to be weak, and feel contempt for oneself, and must live with that fact about oneself, somehow surviving in the next world, limping into Purgatory.

 

Hoffer: “          92

 

The paradox is that much that can achieved by faith can also be achieved by utmost frivolity. If faith rejects the present, frivolity makes light of it and disregards it. Both the devout and the utterly frivolous are capable of self-sacrifice. Both generate a fortitude which sustains one in difficulties; both are capable of extremes.”

 

My response: Both the devout with complete dedication or faith in their holy cause and the utmost frivolous are prime candidates for true believer membership in a mass movement. They both scorn the present, the life interest in time of the individualist: these radical joiners are capable of extreme behavior to demonstrate they will do anything, absolutely anything to further or protect their holy cause.