In The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements (1951) Eric Hoffer explains how mass movements generate or manifest themselves in religious fervor. Leaders of political movements tap into their followers’ desire for change in their lives. Their movements then progress on “extravagant hope.” Recall Obama’s “hope and change” mantra as he first ran for the Presidency and the myriad followers who saw him as some messiah.
According to Hoffer, such movements feed on the followers’ need to rid themselves of an “unwanted self.” Eventually, the need morphs into subservience to a “holy cause” that, in turn, makes identity dependent on fulfillment of that extravagant hope.
Hoffer cites as models the Bolshevik and Nazi revolutions that initially eradicated the feelings of frustration and meaninglessness in the Russian and German populations. As we know now in retrospect, we see how those initial movements turned into the Soviet Union’s erasure of individualism and Nazi Germany’s widespread destruction and death. Ultimately, the promise of extravagant hope not only failed in its original intent, but also reintroduced the frustration and meaninglessness that had motivated people to join the movements. Disillusioned by the failure, the majority of participants abandoned their fervor and found themselves back where they began emotionally, stuck in a present without an escape like Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day.
Many Mass Movements
Mass movements are not just “modern” social phenomena. A list isn’t necessary, but a few examples suffice: Christianity’s rise through hard times before it became the official religion of the Roman Empire, Islam’s rise that precipitated Arab conquests that stretched from the Iberian Peninsula to west-central Asia and India, the Crusades of a millennium or so ago, and, in the New World the Great Awakening about a hundred years after passengers disembarked from the Mayflower. The “Awakening” was a mass religious movement led by George Whitefield, an Anglican priest who preached to throngs of people in the Colonies. The crowds were too large for churches, so they had to gather outside, foreshadowing twentieth-century tent revivals. Whitefield’s movement was enhanced intellectually by the Congregational pastor of Northampton * and academician Jonathan Edwards.
If Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) Were Alive in the 21st Century
There are 21st-century parallels, of course, just as there were precursors of the large-scale movements in the 20th century that Hoffer uses as models to illustrate his contentions. Numerous soapbox leaders have inspired people to adopt a “secular religion” often evidenced by fanatical self-sacrifice: From those submitting themselves for sacrifice to Aztec priests on pyramids to Japanese Kamikaze pilots in WWII, to the “martyrs” wearing bomb vests in the Middle East over the past three decades. In fact, Hoffer had discovered nothing new in his social psychology. People have always undertaken a search for identity or Self that begins in dissatisfaction and anxiety. Not finding identity internally, many, especially the young, latched onto an external identity, often associated with a group supporting a common cause. The success of cults stands as an example.
Who Participates?
Hoffer argues that the poor are less likely to join mass movements than the “well off.” But why? He says, “Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less satisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.” I’m not sure he makes the point he wants to make in that sentence, but elsewhere he argues that the poor “are too satisfied with just surviving to be interested in some grand vision.”
Am I wrong in saying the well-off are more likely to join movements? Hoffer says people with unlimited opportunities are attracted to mass movements. Are there modern examples?
The Climate Alarmism Movement
To a lesser degree than sacrificing one’s life on a pyramid or in crashing a plane in a suicidal attack, people like Greta Thunberg and other climate alarmists have joined a movement that has clearly become a belief with an unshakeable dogma. Those outside the movement are labeled either barbarians or heretics. The dogma of the secular religion of climate change has produced crowds that proportionally rival George Whitefield’s enthusiastic followers. Hoffer might argue that the willingness to join today’s alarmism movement stems from a disdain for the present (for nonbelievers, a questionable present). In its place, the “faithful” hope to install an ideal future. The “satan” (adversary) that has imposed a perceived ”evil” on the world isn’t a king or tzar, but rather carbon, the inanimate substance that ironically underlies the lives of those who wish to eliminate it.
In their fervor, climate activists are willing to negatively affect economies built on cheap energy. The promised future, they believe, will somehow remain the same cushy civilization they currently know, but will somehow differ from the present: Civilization will continue with all its benefits under a carbon-free world, or so the leaders promise. And climate alarmism provides each alarmist with an identity tied to association with others in the movement. Want to witness it? Go to COP30, 31, 32, 33…
But every promise runs into the reality of fulfillment and actualization. The real devil is in the details.
The Dangers of Hopes and Dreams
Kristallnacht and similar events make Hoffer’s point that times when“hopes and dreams are loose in the streets,” usually precipitate some sort of disaster. The “disasters” associated with climate change religion have so far been limited to overt attacks on famous artworks and gas guzzlers and insidious, but so far small disruptions of the energy grids, these latter foreshadowing impoverishment in an energy-starved society of the future. The results of fervor in a secular religion, like enthusiasm in any endeavor, result in a letdown, if not disappointment as the promise engenders its opposite.
Mass movements might begin in good intentions, but most of them end in disillusionment and disarray as they drag on toward an ensuing generation and splinter groups begin altering the original vision. The grand vision of Marx became incarnate in Stalin’s killing millions of Russians and North Korea’s “Supreme” leaders Kim II Sung, Kim Jong II, and Kim Jong Un enslaving the population. As any mass movement progresses toward the opposite of its initial promise, enthusiasm wanes, and despair emerges.
Anything Good Come from Mass Movements?
Yeah. Mass movements have produced some good, though usually only temporary. The overthrow of tyrants by mass movements is good at the outset. Dreaming and scheming for a better life and a better world have produced much of the modern world, sure, some of it bad, but also some of it good. Every revolution has dichotomous results.
*Ah! How the world turns! Whitefield and Johnathan Edwards would have been scandalized by a Time magazine article proclaiming Northampton North America’s lesbian capital, a classification echoed by today’s even more encompassing title as “Lesbian Capital of the World” published in the Massachusetts Daily Collegian (https://dailycollegian.com/2023/10/northampton-the-lesbian-capital-of-the-world/) and echoed in the Daily Hampshire Gazette (https://www.gazettenet.com/Keeping-queer-spaces-alive-in-downtown-Northampton-53588752).
According to Hoffer, such movements feed on the followers’ need to rid themselves of an “unwanted self.” Eventually, the need morphs into subservience to a “holy cause” that, in turn, makes identity dependent on fulfillment of that extravagant hope.
Hoffer cites as models the Bolshevik and Nazi revolutions that initially eradicated the feelings of frustration and meaninglessness in the Russian and German populations. As we know now in retrospect, we see how those initial movements turned into the Soviet Union’s erasure of individualism and Nazi Germany’s widespread destruction and death. Ultimately, the promise of extravagant hope not only failed in its original intent, but also reintroduced the frustration and meaninglessness that had motivated people to join the movements. Disillusioned by the failure, the majority of participants abandoned their fervor and found themselves back where they began emotionally, stuck in a present without an escape like Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day.
Many Mass Movements
Mass movements are not just “modern” social phenomena. A list isn’t necessary, but a few examples suffice: Christianity’s rise through hard times before it became the official religion of the Roman Empire, Islam’s rise that precipitated Arab conquests that stretched from the Iberian Peninsula to west-central Asia and India, the Crusades of a millennium or so ago, and, in the New World the Great Awakening about a hundred years after passengers disembarked from the Mayflower. The “Awakening” was a mass religious movement led by George Whitefield, an Anglican priest who preached to throngs of people in the Colonies. The crowds were too large for churches, so they had to gather outside, foreshadowing twentieth-century tent revivals. Whitefield’s movement was enhanced intellectually by the Congregational pastor of Northampton * and academician Jonathan Edwards.
If Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) Were Alive in the 21st Century
There are 21st-century parallels, of course, just as there were precursors of the large-scale movements in the 20th century that Hoffer uses as models to illustrate his contentions. Numerous soapbox leaders have inspired people to adopt a “secular religion” often evidenced by fanatical self-sacrifice: From those submitting themselves for sacrifice to Aztec priests on pyramids to Japanese Kamikaze pilots in WWII, to the “martyrs” wearing bomb vests in the Middle East over the past three decades. In fact, Hoffer had discovered nothing new in his social psychology. People have always undertaken a search for identity or Self that begins in dissatisfaction and anxiety. Not finding identity internally, many, especially the young, latched onto an external identity, often associated with a group supporting a common cause. The success of cults stands as an example.
Who Participates?
Hoffer argues that the poor are less likely to join mass movements than the “well off.” But why? He says, “Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less satisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.” I’m not sure he makes the point he wants to make in that sentence, but elsewhere he argues that the poor “are too satisfied with just surviving to be interested in some grand vision.”
Am I wrong in saying the well-off are more likely to join movements? Hoffer says people with unlimited opportunities are attracted to mass movements. Are there modern examples?
The Climate Alarmism Movement
To a lesser degree than sacrificing one’s life on a pyramid or in crashing a plane in a suicidal attack, people like Greta Thunberg and other climate alarmists have joined a movement that has clearly become a belief with an unshakeable dogma. Those outside the movement are labeled either barbarians or heretics. The dogma of the secular religion of climate change has produced crowds that proportionally rival George Whitefield’s enthusiastic followers. Hoffer might argue that the willingness to join today’s alarmism movement stems from a disdain for the present (for nonbelievers, a questionable present). In its place, the “faithful” hope to install an ideal future. The “satan” (adversary) that has imposed a perceived ”evil” on the world isn’t a king or tzar, but rather carbon, the inanimate substance that ironically underlies the lives of those who wish to eliminate it.
In their fervor, climate activists are willing to negatively affect economies built on cheap energy. The promised future, they believe, will somehow remain the same cushy civilization they currently know, but will somehow differ from the present: Civilization will continue with all its benefits under a carbon-free world, or so the leaders promise. And climate alarmism provides each alarmist with an identity tied to association with others in the movement. Want to witness it? Go to COP30, 31, 32, 33…
But every promise runs into the reality of fulfillment and actualization. The real devil is in the details.
The Dangers of Hopes and Dreams
Kristallnacht and similar events make Hoffer’s point that times when“hopes and dreams are loose in the streets,” usually precipitate some sort of disaster. The “disasters” associated with climate change religion have so far been limited to overt attacks on famous artworks and gas guzzlers and insidious, but so far small disruptions of the energy grids, these latter foreshadowing impoverishment in an energy-starved society of the future. The results of fervor in a secular religion, like enthusiasm in any endeavor, result in a letdown, if not disappointment as the promise engenders its opposite.
Mass movements might begin in good intentions, but most of them end in disillusionment and disarray as they drag on toward an ensuing generation and splinter groups begin altering the original vision. The grand vision of Marx became incarnate in Stalin’s killing millions of Russians and North Korea’s “Supreme” leaders Kim II Sung, Kim Jong II, and Kim Jong Un enslaving the population. As any mass movement progresses toward the opposite of its initial promise, enthusiasm wanes, and despair emerges.
Anything Good Come from Mass Movements?
Yeah. Mass movements have produced some good, though usually only temporary. The overthrow of tyrants by mass movements is good at the outset. Dreaming and scheming for a better life and a better world have produced much of the modern world, sure, some of it bad, but also some of it good. Every revolution has dichotomous results.
*Ah! How the world turns! Whitefield and Johnathan Edwards would have been scandalized by a Time magazine article proclaiming Northampton North America’s lesbian capital, a classification echoed by today’s even more encompassing title as “Lesbian Capital of the World” published in the Massachusetts Daily Collegian (https://dailycollegian.com/2023/10/northampton-the-lesbian-capital-of-the-world/) and echoed in the Daily Hampshire Gazette (https://www.gazettenet.com/Keeping-queer-spaces-alive-in-downtown-Northampton-53588752).
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