Grandeur

 

On Page 96 of his book, The Passionate State of Mind, Eric Hoffer has two entries which I quote and then comment on.

 

 

Hoffer: “          169

 

There is a grandeur in the uniformity of the mass. When a fashion, a dance, a song, a slogan or a joke sweeps like wildfire from one end of the continent to the other,  and a hundred million people roar with laughter, sway their bodies in unison, hum one song or break forth in anger and denunciation, there is the overpowering feeling that in this country we have come nearer to the brotherhood of man than ever before.”

 

My response: Yes, there is grandeur and a sense of brotherhood in mass uniformity, but that is also where evildoing is concentrated and most damaging.

 

 

Hoffer: “          172

 

The superficiality of the American is the result of his hustling. It needs leisure to think things out; it needs leisure to mature. People in a hurry cannot think, cannot grow, nor can they decay. They are preserved in a state of perpetual puerility.”

 

My response: Perhaps the answer to the dilemma that a hustling people are a shallow people is twofold. First, the people must maverize so they can know leisure, growth, and advancement.

 

Second, they must move and do so they stay alive and get something done, putting their life plan into action, making it come real.