Intolerance

 

On Page 113 of his book, The Passionate State of Mind, Eric Hoffer has one entry which I quote and then comment on.

 

Hoffer: “          200

 

It is doubtful whether there is such a thing as impulsive or natural tolerance.”

 

My response: Once again I am very impressed, astonished, even flabbergasted at how insightful this original, moral genius is, and how rich with implications are even a seemingly simple, single sentence like the one just above.

 

Hoffer is saying that humans are not naturally or impulsively tolerant. What does this indicate? It signifies to me that he thinks humans are born depraved, that they can only be good, kind, rational, accepting, tolerant and willing to peacefully coexist with those of differing opinions when so conducting oneself is a learned moral behavior that the majority of a nation practice, actually practice.

 

It also indicates that he is a moralist that believed the moderate, tolerant, civilized, libertarian and classically liberal acceptance of intellectual independence of others opposing us is the ideal, the behavioral standard to live by in settling disputes and disagreements. These behaviors must be taught, learned, and then widely practiced, if there is to be peace and tolerant across the land.

 

For humans to be good, they must become good, following an adopted, artificial moral code. As individualists, individuators and classical liberals, loving freedom, and mutual tolerance, and that practice peaceful tolerance and rational, civil dialoguing, humans must allow a range of views differing from their own, agreeing to peacefully and legally coexist.

 

Hoffer believes that people are born emotional, passionate, fanatical, and addicted to false dichotomies. They are born intolerant, tyrannical and willing to use force and the threat of violence to compel pure conformity in thought, word, and deed from others to one’s own views.

 

Because human history is a history of warring amongst rival groups, tribes, and nations, in which people group-live, live nonindividuated lives, group-identify and live in accordance with altruist-collectivist morality, people were allowed to express their wicked tendencies, given cover and moral sanction by society and its leaders. People, being naturally vicious, cruel, savage, barbaric and willing to terrorize and use authoritarian government to impel people to see things, “the proper way”, were allowed to act as bad as they were without secular or divine sanction, so they just misbehaved consistently and ignominiously.

 

Hoffer: “Tolerance requires an effort of thought and self-control. And acts of kindness, too, are rarely without deliberateness and ‘thoughtfulness’.”

 

My response: Hoffer does not much believe in random acts of kindness: who is most capable of consistently acting kind as a learned behavior? it is the individual being self-interested but being kind to himself, to the Good Spirits and to others as a planned pattern of behavior and it works.

 

Random acts of cruelty and intolerance are easy and effortless: all we have to do is deny we have a human nature, an animalistic, bestial nature, that is intolerant, aggressive and unkind, or that we have to fight this nature, as Dennis Prager exhorts us to do.

 

When we run in packs, it easy for acts of intolerance and cruelty to be joyously, eagerly engaged in and indulged, whether it is random or planned as a long-term pattern of abusing the dissident, the weak, the stranger, those from a rival group with a different story that they live by.

 

Hoffer: “Thus it seems that some artificiality, some posing and pretense, are inseparable from any acts or attitude which involves a limitation of our appetites and selfishness.”

 

My response: Because humans are so depraved and savage, and yet salvageable and redeemable, they must be taught the artificial, unnatural morality of egoism-individualism so they then can act rational, loving, nonviolent, tolerant, and civilized. This morality is alien to humans, so it must be a pose or pretense until, like muscle memory exercises, the natural human recessive appetite to be individual, kind, and tolerant, becomes natural or second nature to a morally well-trained adult of good will. This lie or faked goodness is a role played by humans until it becomes their surface personality, a genuine good person, a virtuous and holy persona worn over the beast or savage pullulating and raging within. As the ethical adult learns to behave, she can limit her appetites for hate and to curb her burning urge to hurt and attack those different from her, especially if they are militant about disagreeing with her. She can limit her selfish desire to control, break and own and direct them only by becoming a civilized individual and human individualist.

 

Hoffer: “We ought to beware of people who do not think it is necessary to pretend they are good and decent.”

 

My response: How I would translate this sentence in plain, Mavellonialist English talk would be to note that we are to beware of people that are unwilling to be hypocritical as a standard—always sought after even if not always lived up to (the standard of being a well-behaved person of good will, kind to the self, kind to others, and tolerant of oneself and tolerant of others frailties and follies too): the hypocrite gives praise to being virtuous, while often or mostly failing to or refusing to behave, but this hypocrite is just the average person, a bit more good-behaving than not, but who is underneath not good or decent at all. When in a group with not socially conditioned restraints on misbehaving, the group become a mob and its members, of all or any race, gender and creed, are quite equal in being capable of doing anything, literally anything to others.

 

When evil rules the social dispensation openly, when the hypocritical requirement to pretend to be good and decent is no longer required, socially rewarded or not without real danger of being punished for striving to remain good and decent, then people’s fanatical, natural tendency to be selfish, violent, intolerant, authoritarian and lawless, is openly expressed, lived and championed by the majority of the people, then it is their natural, honest, genuine nature being openly, truthfully expressed and worn on their sleeves. This is not sustainable for society, for the gates of hell are open and the demonic monsters walk the streets in their millions, these human beings openly showing their nature and their lived base desires being easily expressed and socially praised and reinforced.

 

Hoffer: “Lack of hypocrisy in such things hints at a capacity for a most depraved ruthlessness.”