The Link

 

On Page 116 of his book, The Passionate State of Mind, Eric Hoffer writes three entries which I quote and comment on.

 

 

Hoffer: “          205

 

It is the inordinately selfish who need self-forgetting the most, hence their proneness to passionate pursuits.”

 

My response: It amazes me how much this genius can pack into just a few words. The inordinately selfish are narcissistic, rotten people who are quite wicked: they are wicked because they hate themselves and just decided their situation and isolation from God was hopeless and insurmountable: they are already damned so they might as well enjoy their wretchedness, letting themselves go, taking their resentment out on others to whom they will do whatever they could get away with without being hurt or detected.

 

They are wicked because they hate themselves, and they hate themselves because they are wicked. They are completely selfish, so they hate themselves completely; because they find themselves utterly revolting, they seek escape from this dreary self-realization, which requires self-forgetting  to run away successfully  from conscious, constant reminder of their total worthlessness.

 

The selfless are the most selfish while and whereas the self-interested and individualistic are much less selfish and much more benevolent that the altruist is. The individualist is not as unselfish as the saintly rare giver, but he generally is rather considerate of others and himself; note that people of radical disposition are more evil, and those of moderate character are better people. This entire characterization of humans is but another sign that Hoffer—as I do—identifies evil as extreme, collective, but regards goodness as temperate, and supportive of a good self, an individualist.

 

Note that the evil, selfish man has to forget himself; he is passionate and excessively emotional so he seeks to escape from his ruined life inside a mass movement or holy cause. The individualist, by contrast, is comfortable with himself and loves himself because he is lovable, a good person. On some level, the self can never get away with lying to the self and making it stick.

 

 

Hoffer:  “         206

 

Death would have no terror were it to come a month from now, a week or even a day—but not tomorrow. For death has but one terror, that it has no tomorrow.”

 

My response: The instinct to live is one of the deepest human instincts, and, whether our life is worth living because we are good people, or it is not worth living because we are rotten monsters, we still cling to life, to this world. It could be that death is somehow a God-substitute, or a horrifying reminder that if we die today, we will meet God, and that is a most unnerving prospect, especially if we are ill prepared for that ultimate encounter.

 

 

Hoffer: “          207

 

We usually yield to extremism not because we have no time to grow, but because we doubt we are capable of growth.”

 

My response: We yield to extremism or a life of sin and excessive speech, action and beliefs, bad behaviors carried out in a group setting with radical views entailed. We yield not because we did not have time to grow, but because we chose to refuse the call of the Good Spirits, to individuate to love, to grow, to create and build.

 

We enjoyed being lazy, mediocre, a life of ease and unfulfilling pleasure, or we actively enjoyed destroying and hurting others, a perverse pleasure, an addiction hat grows for we must hurt more and more to feel the original adrenaline rush of hurting others.

 

We settle for extremism and sin because we do not believe in ourselves or that we can grow. It could be that the lack of faith in ourselves, and our ability to be good, to despair is the gravest sin against God that we can commit, for it leads us right down the road to hell.