The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

by Eric Hoffer

In a modern society people can live without hope only when kept dazed and out of breath by incessant hustling.

Discontent is likely to be highest when misery is bearable; when conditions have so improved that an ideal state seems almost within reach.

It is not actual suffering but the taste of better things which excites people to revolt.

Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some.

Where freedom is real, equality is the passion of the masses. Where equality is real, freedom is the passion of a small minority.

Equality without freedom creates a more stable social pattern than freedom without equality.

“To illustrate a principle,” says Bagehot, “you must exaggerate much and you must omit much.”

Glory is largely a theatrical concept. There is no striving for glory without a vivid awareness of an audience—

To lose one’s life is but to lose the present; and, clearly, to lose a defiled, worthless present is not to lose much.

“Do not seek Adolph Hitler with your brains; all of you will find him with the strength of your hearts.”

The rule seems to be that those who find no difficulty in deceiving themselves are easily deceived by others. They are easily persuaded and led.

Even when men league themselves mightily together to promote tolerance and peace on earth, they are likely to be violently intolerant toward those not of a like mind.

The quality of ideas seems to play a minor role in mass movement leadership. What counts is the arrogant gesture, the complete disregard of the opinion of others, the singlehanded defiance of the world.

A mass movement’s call for action evokes an eager response in the frustrated. For the frustrated see in action a cure for all that ails them.