COMM 4650 – Long
Hoffer, E. (1951). The
true believer: Thoughts on the nature of mass movements. New York: Harper
and Row.
Definition: The true believer = “. . . the man of fanatical faith who
is ready to sacrifice his life for a holy cause” (p. xii)
Rationale:
“It is necessary for most of us these days to have some
insight into the motives and responses of the true believer. For though ours is
a godless age, it is the very opposite of irreligious. The true believer is
everywhere on the march, and both by converting and antagonizing he is shaping
up the world in his own image. And whether we are to line up with him or
against him, it is well that we should know all we can concerning his nature
and potentialities. (p. xiii)
“The assumption that mass movements have many traits in
common does not imply that all movements are equally beneficent or poisonous. The book passes no
judgments, and expresses no preferences. It merely tries to explain…(p. xiii)
Hypotheses:
“Starting out from the fact that the frustrated
predominate among the early adherents of all mass movements and that they
usually join of their own accord, it is assumed: 1) that frustration of itself,
without any proselytizing prompting from the outside, can generate most of the
peculiar characteristics of the true believer; 2) that an effective technique of
conversion consists basically in the inculcation and fixation of proclivities
and responses indigenous to the frustrated mind.” (p. xii)
“ . . . a mass movement . . . appeals not to those intent
on bolstering and advancing a cherished self, but to those who crave to be rid
of an unwanted self. A mass movement attracts and holds a following not because
it can satisfy the desire for self-advancement, but because it can satisfy the
passion for self-renunciation.”
(p. 12)
Potential Followers and ‘True Believers’ = The Disaffected
“Though the disaffected are found in all walks of life,
they are most frequent in the following categories: a) the poor, b) misfits, c)
outcasts, d) minorities, e) adolescent youth, f) the ambitious, g) those in the
grip of some vice or obsession, h) the impotent (in body or mind), i) the
inordinately selfish, j) the bored, k) the sinners.” (p. 25)
Content vs. Form:
“A rising mass movement attracts and holds a following not
by its doctrine and promises but by the refuge it offers from the anxieties,
barrenness, and meaninglessness of an individual existence. It cures the
poignantly frustrated not by conferring on them an absolute truth or remedying
the difficulties and abuses which made their lives miserable, but by freeing
them from their ineffectual selves – and it does this by enfolding and
absorbing them into a closely knit and exultant corporate whole.” (p. 41)
Preface: Part
III - United Action and
Self-Sacrifice (pp. 58-61)
When we ascribe the success of a movement to it faith,
doctrine, propaganda, leadership, and ruthlessness and so on, we are but
referring to instruments of unification and to means used to inculcate a readiness
for self-sacrifice. It is perhaps impossible to understand the nature of mass
movements unless it is recognized that their chief preoccupation is to foster,
perfect and perpetuate a facility for united action and self-sacrifice. To know the processes by which such a
facility is engendered Is to grasp the inner logic of most of the
characteristics attitudes and practices of an active mass movement.
“The reader is expected to quarrel with much that is said
in this part of the book….this is not an authoritative textbook. It is a book
of thoughts, and it does not shy away from half-truths so long as they seem to
hint at a new approach and help to formulate new questions. ‘To illustrate a
principle,’ says Bagehot, ‘you must exaggerate much and you must omit much.”
(pp. 60).
Factors promoting self-sacrifice (pp. 62-90):
1. identification with a collective whole (44-46)
2. make-believe (47)
3. deprecation of the present (48-55)
4. “things which are not” -
5. doctrine – not meaning but certitude (58-59)
6. fanaticism (60-63)
“What surprises one, when listening to the frustrated as
the decry the present and all
its works, is the enormous joy they derive from doing so. Such delight
cannot come form the mere venting of a grievance. There must be something more –
and there is. By expiating upon the incurable baseness and vileness of the
times, the frustrated soften their feeling of failure and isolation….(p75)
“The effectiveness of a doctrine does not come from its meaning but
from its certitude…presented as the embodiment of the one and only truth. If a
doctrine is not unintelligible,
it has to be vague; and if neither unintelligible nor vague, it has to be unverifiable.
One has to get to heaven or the distant future to determine the truth of an
effective doctrine….simple words are made pregnant with meaning and made to
look like symbols in a secret message. There is thus an illiterate air about
the most literate true believer.” (pp. 80-81).
“The fanatic is perpetually incomplete and insecure. He cannot
generate self-assurance out of his individual sources – our of his rejected self –
but finds it only by clinging passionately to whatever support he happens to
embrace. The passionate attachment is the essence of his blind devotion and
religiosity, and he sees in it the sources of all virtue and strength….He
sacrifices his life to prove his worth.” (p. 85)
“The fanatic cannot be weaned away from his cause by an
appeal to reason or his moral sense. He fears compromise and cannot be persuaded to qualify the certitude and
righteousness of his holy cause.” (p. 85).
Mass Movements vs. Armies (p. 88-90).
Unifying agents (pp. 91 – 128):
1. hatred
2. imitation
3. persuasion and coercion
4. leadership
5. action
6. suspicion
Handout
©Lynette M. Long, PhD all rights
reserved.
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