Eric Hoffer: The True Believer and The Nature of Mass Movements
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 ธ.ค. 2013
- In this lecture we examine Eric Hoffer's fascinating analysis of mass movements. We look at their causes, those most prone to join a mass movement, the role of leaders and intellectuals in such movements, and more.
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The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements - amzn.to/1XUZ7HD (affiliate link)
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_Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in the devil_. I'll remember this.
And it’s all coming to fruition now.
Remember it well.
MAGA Republicans are the new "devil"
Just because its said dosent make it true. Besides mass movements can happen simply because the current system is unjust.
Ironically for a man who had no formal education, but was self-taught, Hoffer was a brilliant social philosopher. 'The True Believer' is well worth the read. The video does provide excellent insight. Reading the book though, does it true justice.
Well. Wasn't this just about 7 years ahead of its time...
It’s timeless. This happens everywhere every day, it drives much human behaviour. Although it might not always be televised.
Most people try to take their worst faults & change them into 'virtue'. Empty, hurt, envious, and resentful people are always looking for 'cause' to unleash their anger against 'everyone'. They delude themselves that following their 'cause' is an act of virtue even though the 'true believer' are the most empty of all the population and also the most dangerous.
Every time I watch a video on this channel, I add more books to my list...
Read faster, watch fewer videos? 😉
I had to read this book for a political theory class last year, it was alright
I just finished this and came searching in YT to find an analysis of what I’ve just read. It’s such a short read, but MY GOD do his short sentences have insane depth. Literally one of the most succinct philosophers (in the true sense of that word) I’ve ever read, but each paragraph sends you into your mind to wrestle with his points-of-view. There was very little I disagreed with in this book. I think everyone could benefit from reading just his take on the middle classes and his breakdown on institutionalized poverty in western nations.
Same here
That’s sounds like a good thing. The True Believer is an amazing book! 😊
This book should be more popular right now.
I agree, and I first read this book in 1981.
@@valerietaylor9615
I first read it in 2003 or something…shortly after high school. Lucky me. It kept me out of trouble.
Philosophy is questions that may not be answered. Religion is answers that may not be questioned.
cringe take
This is a brilliantly accurate description. Bravo.
Well!! You are a clever guy, aren't you?
Kinda like woke SJWs.
Just FYI, in Islam it is mandatory to question, be it physicality or spirituality.
Fantastisch stuff! Im loving these lectures, I can think of so many ways to put it to use! Thanks so much!
I love your videos on social psychology, social control, collectivism, freedom, and individuality. I viewed all your videos from a political perspective but after becoming an atheist, I’m rewatching your videos from a religious perspective. The way people worship the state and a god really aren’t all that different.
That’s so true, but few people realize that.
One more reason why creative workers are prone to mass movements: mass movements expect individuals to give up their identity in being a part of a group. Creative workers however depend on their uniqueness to stay alive.
creative workers are [less] prone to mass movements
This book greatly affected me. Along with the chapter in Arthur Koestler's book "The Ghost in the Machine" on how the True Believer has an "Iron Curtain" inside his skull, over his brain. Koestler experienced this firsthand as a CONVERT and True Believer in Communism and seeing FIRSTHAND the mass Starvation imposed by Stalin as Koestler traveled the Soviet Union, unable to register the atrocities committed because he NEEDED to believe!
Everyone should read this and also Fromm's Escape From Freedom. Hoffer, by the way, was a lifetime longshoreman and read and wrote in his free time.
Thanks for sharing, I wasn’t aware he was also a longshoreman… so am I, very cool 😊
Favorite channel on youtube
Dont eat it all uncritically
Damn. That was some deep, deep truth there! One of the best lectures you've posted, by far. Though I'd argue radical altruism need not be inherently self-destructive.
Thank you for uploading this video.
Great work.Thank you.
8 years later, and this video is more grim than it was at posting.
Awesome video, great channel
4:45 Bro is describing me 💀
Glad I found this video. Need to reevaluate myself fr
Perceptive, illuminating, constructive ideas.
thanks for summarizing this book!
Very well done!
“There is a certain uniformity in in all types of dedication, of faith, of pursuit of power, of unity and of self sacrifice. There are vast differences in the content of holy causes and doctrines, but a certain uniformity in the factors which make them effective...However different the holy causes people die for,they perhaps die basically for the same thing”. __Eric Hoffer
Hoffer and McLuhan seem similar here. The medium shapes collective behavior so that all social operations become similar regardless of content. Hoffer spotted these visual patterns because he was blind until he was a teenager. Sudden exposure to the printed word was more evident to him while we mostly are blind.
Very well done. Hoffer was blessed with brilliance.
Watching this in 2022 is like hearty delicious ideological soup
happy new year
"there is in us a tendency to locate the shaping forces of our existence outside ourselves".
Well isn't this factually true? I mean, who is really in total control of their conditions? Society has a rule for sure. But still that doesn't mean one should join a blind mass movement to improve his condition. I need to read this book..
I read the book in 2014 and it's very good. I found a free online PDF. (not sure if it's still there). It woke me up to the fact that something big was about to pop off. Lo and behold, here we are!
Could you send me the link for it please?
I sent this link last week and the comment might have been deleted
evelynbrooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/The_True_Believer_-_Eric_Hoffer.pdf
Thanks! :)
The True Believer is one of the greatest books ever written. However, don’t many wealthy, successful people claim they got that way because they “ worked hard”? (In plain English, “ inherited”).
Would you mind elaborating something on Anarchic movements specifically?mi love all your stuff
I think its still good to have a choice in society. "the failure for the regime to hammer the people into one whole" this is not actually a good thing, governments try to do this with censorship and propaganda even today of course.
His style seems to be more academic than “what’s best” for human flourishing. He’s really only interested in dissecting what makes mass movements, cults, and political ideologies tick and compel their adherents to eventual radical action.
@@clintgolub1751 Nailed it!
Everything in this is about focusing on things that make you blind to social ills, and focus on the negativity that comes with fighting social ills.
Thx 4 video
More Hoffer, please.
***** Summaries and lectures are a bit less time-consuming yet informative.
***** buuuurrrnnnnn
*****
If I hadn't read his books, I wouldn't have been asking for more on You Tube, do you think?
Brilliant
This reminds me of a book called "the crowd: A study of the popular mind", that contains the same over simplifications as this. You have truths about behaviour and psychology combined with condescending assumptions about the motivations of large numbers of people and an apparent bias resulting in sweeping generalizations that amounts to rubbish. The only point of value is on the role of the charismatic leader who foments hatred and blame. It is he who corrupts and distorts the movement.
I only started watching AoI a few years ago... this video suggestion popped up today a couple weeks after seeing Prof. Mattias Desmet discussing mass formation with regards to the current global covid cult.
Pertinent video.
Good algorithm.
Hey great video. Could you do a video on antinatalism and David Benetar?
Welcome to 2020
Lol look at all the commenters pointing fingers at who and who isn’t a true believer while at the same time saying there movement, religion, or country isn’t the same
So, Why so People fight anyway? Perhaps meaning of Life lies within our will to fight. And ts a fact the ones actually fighting are never perceived as being tainted. ♡
hmmm this is familiar to something that is happening, but i can't remeaber what that is.🤔
Are mass movements usually coupled with military might? I feel like this subject could be explored much further and compared with other types of movements.
self taught us just as good most education is self taught
Wow describes the Millenials today
Freedom of speech is pretty underrated
TMiTM The Key knowledge of the self.
True Believer @ Kevin Doyle's TH-cam channel brought me here.
Absolutely magnificent.
I wonder what the reasons were for occupy wallstreet failing. Has capatalism achieved in its mission to make apathic beings out of us, who are more occupied with the latest iphone than with the suicides of chinese workes at foxconn?
Have you questioned your belief that capitalism is the root cause of what you oppose? Perhaps you're a true believer of the anti-capitalist mass movement
thinkngskeptic And maybe you should't presuppose that i do not think about my position on capitalism and that I willingly accept Ideology from the left or the right, without questioning those believes. I can assure you that I have informed myself about the matter and that I don't need you as someone to tell me the one and only truth as you might believe to have.
thinkngskeptic That's a great question, I thought about this myself and I don't believe anymore capitalism is the root cause of all the misery in the world, if you look at all the other systems we've had, there weren't any that were much better. That's why I think the problem lies with the common denominator of all those systems: money.
What do you think?
erasmusso hm could you specify why do you think money is the root of all evil?
For my opinion on capitalism I can only tell you what little I have to come to know in my 21 years and I can by no means give you a full explanation on this theme since it's very complex and I barely understand a bit of it.
My envioussnes for capitalism rests on several events where I think to see capitalism at work: the belgian congo genocide, the banking crisis of 2008, the crisis of the american science system (and i suppose in other countries too), the monopolisation of the markets, the dispensability of the poor which seem to have absolutely no rights in our monetized society and so on...
I am not a complete opponent of capitalism, since I think it really is the best way to create the best functioning economy possible but at the same time I can not bear the thought that children have to die in Africa because speculants want to bet on food prices. Capitalism as it now is will destroy itself and us with it if we will not socialize many parts of our western economic systems.
I believe that if we don't do anything against the structural unfairness that is inhibited in capitalism, we will end up in a new Aristocracy of the Rich and loose democracy as we know it.
That's pretty much my point of view.
MrJoeRedford capitalism is simply uneffective. Modern system relies on robbery and supercheap labour of overpopulated countries. If western workers were paid as much as Chinese or indian they'd already hang those capitalists on lampposts, practically capitalism did not change since last century and enjoys exploitation of the poorest, but average western bourgeois simply does not see what happens away from their fake world. They are given money that cost nothing to buy products to inflate economy that produces useless iphones and other crap you've mentioned. Humankind simply wastes resourses and all its potential on nothing just for sake of 0.1% of population would live like kings. With point of view like you have you probably would have a lot of problems in the west, as you are very likely to be ostracized, several decades ago you'd be labeled a commie, and even though there is nothing bad in being one, I personally think its an honour to be called one, as in my mind commie is an ideal man, not what Nazi and American propaganda depicted as him, more like a saint in Christian paradigm. Your only choice is to be happy about the way you live. Look at those wonderful hi-tech buildings all around you, all those hi-tech gadgets, beautiful cars, cool movies and delicious food. Its all about capitalism they would say, and would prove it by facts, because for real, living in the west is times more comfortable than in the east. But nobody would ever explain how this comfort was achieved, and it was achieved by constant robbery of opponents for centuries and immediate destruction of even very weak bearers of alternative ideology. In last decades Yugoslavia was destroyed only for that, Libya too, when they did not pose any threat at all, they were just ideologically different to 'liberal' fascism. Iraq was robbed. Iran, DPRK and Venezuela are depicted as uber evil, while Iran for instance is one of the most civilized and liberal (sure not as liberal as Israel, but among muslim it is) countries in the region, despite it being an Islamic republic.
I don't know how obvious for you it was, but fascism is just an extreme variation of bourgeois capitalist society. There are 'we', good guys, and scum around us that can be robbed for sake of our prosperity. I never believed in so-called western democracy, especially being a witness of what farce it actually is basing on example of Russian 'democracy', btw this fake democracy was established with much help of so-called democracy of USA, when one drunkard Boris with full support of American government and president Clinton (or whom this person represents) massacred civilian population that was defending legitimately elected Russian parliament accompanied with applauds from Washington, and instead of legitimately elected parliament we've got a semi-fascist oligarchy state ruled by an illegitimate murderer who beside committing crime ignored the constitution, not to speak of his corruption career that started as cheapass propaganda where this bastard would use bus to get to job. So what democracy and what support for democracy can we speak about, if the most 'democratic' state in the world as it calls itself allows itself to support murder, destroy real democracy and establish fascist autocratic regimes? Its just a folding screen that covers robbery and crimes commited by de-facto fascist state. Democracy is necessarily only for legitimization of intervention in any state of the world this 'democracy' proclaims non-democratic. Its just the same Hitler did, just other words are used. And what Hitler wanted - is to make a british empire for germans, nothing new, just different names and methods for good old colonialism.
Again a very ideological presentation. You only present one persons view on the matter
i'm a true believer in Tyler Durden's cause
Anyone who negatively points out Trump with this - probably needs to revisit the section on "Hate Being A Unifying Agent"
“A mass movement appeals to those who crave to be rid of an unwanted self”
-- Eric Hoffer, “The True Believer” Page 7
The difference between a radical and an extremist is that a radical actually thinks about the ideology they are pursuing.
Yes, this is true. A true believer is not the same thing as an extreme follower.
An extreme follower may be really biased, but they may also have a curiosity with how the world work.
Hoffer was prescient, we need his work more than ever in the age of Trumpism.
I have no political affiliation i just vote for the one i think would do less damage and the country's best interest and just wondering who would have been the lesser of the two evils
@@scottkraft1062 I feel the same way, I did not vote for Mrs. Clinton because I was uncomfortable with her (I live in a state that always goes for the Democrat so am free to vote my conscience) I knew that Trump would be a disaster for many reasons but I had NO idea how bad he would be for this country, this time I voted for Biden who I do consider the lesser of 2 evils and consider a place holder until some sort of reform of the system is possible.
I miss the days when people could have a difference of opinion and respectfully disagree without all the hate. I keep my opinions to myself because I don't want it to get in the way of helping others and whoever wins I'm fine with it and will just have to see what happens have a good day.
Thinking trumpism is deserving of the title of AGE is very self obssesive
omfug The same could be said about not just Right wing groups like the proud boys and the MAGA crowd but also Left wing groups like BLM and Antifa. Not only that but what I have noticed is that both sides have people that are peaceful.
Who ist watching this in 2020?
I keep painting, but I'm still sad to be poor.
Mass movements what a bummer
what when you aren't allowed to be creative?
A mass movement can rise and spread without a God, but never without the Devil. Damn !
The list of books recommended by John Taylor Gatto in the back of Underground History of American Education:
The Myth of the Common School - Charles Glenn
Education and the Cult of Efficiency - Ray Callahan
In the Name of Eugenics - Daniel Kevles
The Discovery of the Asylum - David Rothman
Quest for a New Moral World - John Harrison
The True and Only Heaven - Christopher Lasch
Strangers in the Land - John Higham
Albion's Seed - David Hackett Fischer
Fire in the Minds of Men - James H. Billington
The True Believer - Eric Hoffer
Tragedy and Hope - Carroll Quigley
Autonomous Technology - Langdon Winner
The Burned-Over District - Whitney R. Cross
The History of Childhood - Lloyd de Mause, ed.
America Revised - Frances Fitzgerald
Asylums - Erving Goffman
Escape from Freedom - Erich Fromm
The Road to Serfdom - F. A. Hayek
Piety vs. Moralism - Joseph Haroutunian
The History of Utopian Thought - Joyce Hertzler
The Uncommitted - Kenneth Keniston
The Professional Altruist - Roy Lubove
Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy - Joseph Schumpeter
The Legacy of Malthus - Allan Chase
Tomorrow's Children - Ellsworth Huntington
Sterilization for Human Betterment - E Gosney and P Popenoe
The Super Race - Scott Nearing
From Dawn to Decadence - Jacques Barzun
Fast forward to 2020/21.....🤦♂️
It's humorous to see so many commenters greedily scratching their personal itches on Hoffer's tree. The way i see Hoffer is the way I see Veblen; he sees many things somewhat clearly, but through the wrong end of a telescope. You can identify a few of their ideas in people and groups from a distance; but it's a flagrant mistake to assume you're seeing and assessing the whole truth about them from the "strawman" that is drawn by these gentlemen.
You cant always blame your faults on yourself. Not possible.
Sure, but it all depends on how it is done. True believers often blame a very particular group for all of their problems (i.e. Democrats, Republicans, billionaires, immigrants, etc.)
3
While the conclusions he draws are clearly nothing more than incrementalist, capitalist apologetics, his analysis is undoubtedly a strikingly accurate one. If I ever feel like starting a mass social movement, I'll make sure to regard his accidental blueprint for creating a totalitarian state as my go-to source of inspiration.
Clever. I will start one and we can go head to head in mass annihilation.
No wonder they keep complaining about paper cuts!
Why should one apologize for capitalism?
So you wish to be another Stalin? Thanks for letting us all know.
This is incredibly relevant in the recent crop of "movements" that popped up. The only movent I believe in is a bowel movement.
A whole lot of He, and not She, which may be the time frame and/or original author,but Women's Movement and Civil Rights, might be somewhat a Mass Movement, no?
Sure, feminism and civil rights are both mass movements. Women were included in "he" for all of his life, though by the time of his death in the early 1980s there was a significant push against it.
Ive since grown out of your videos although liked them when I was younger they are still fun even if not rather corny, but many of your analysis in this video are just well honestly you discredit yourself entirely. this was almost a decade ago so we can hope your critical skills have improved but the comments section that your content draws will remain lacking ... if not telling
I'M SHOCKED THAT GOOGLE DIDN'T CENSOR THIS VIDEO SINCE IT DESCRIBES THE GOOGLE CULTURE PERFECTLY
:)
Isn't this a perfect description of Islam and Muslims?
It's an accurate description of all many religion. Dogma requires a degree of blind obedience that is oft found in true believers.
Yes, & also of medieval Christianity (as well as today's fundamentalist versions).
Schechter Arts yes and America played this card setting the stage for decades to come in a perpetual war. Please see my other comment.
And of christians and jews because religions are literally all religions because they are inherently mass movements
If a religion encourages one to become a better version of themselves,
then I don't think it would count as a mass movement.
If "true believer" is a minority personality type, it cannot explain a "mass" movement. At best the presence of a personality type may provide a nucleus around which a movement may gather. This being the case mass-movements are circumstantial, rather than personal.
It is interesting that this discourse begins by defining a personality "type" but begins to explain the "circumstances", recent impoverishment for example, that lead to mass movements. To this extent, Hoffer seems to belong to a Jewish tradition of pathologization of social movements and dialectics.
You are missing the context of minority personality type WITHIN a majority group. e.g. if a country is 70% White, 15% Jew & 15% Black then there will be more of the true believer minority type in the white population, possibly more than the combined 30% can handle.
The remaining whites will not have the suicidal zeal of the "true believers" and thus will either be swept up in an effort to survive and not die as race traitors/infidels/blasphemers.
Mass movements need mass after all...
Carlton Curtis You are assuming that the whites (in the case you choose to represent) are a racially conscious monolith without internal divisions. The reality is that the acceptance of the TB minority by the vast majority, will be entirely dependent upon what the TB actually believes, and whether or not these beliefs correspond with the beliefs of the mainstream population.
In fact, if you represent a TB personality type as being devoid of originality and critical perception, he or she is much more likely to subsume his or her opinions in those of the majority (which will be the source of the majority of influence he or she is exposed to), than to adopt deviant minority, radical, opinions.
You are also assuming that the TB personality types will all invest in the same ideology at the same time; nonsense.
The fact is that hostility to Jews in 30's Europe had nothing to do with a toxic personality type, and had everything to do with massively disproportionate Jewish involvement in Communism/Bolshevism and the Red Terrors that were carried out in Hungary, Bavaria and the Ukraine.
Mass movements need mass appeal.
what?
Is it a minority viewpoint? There are millions and millions of people who blindly believe in a religion or blindly subscribe to their political party without being engaged with the substance of what the cause they are in is trying to actually do.
It seems as if this is the only book Donald Trump ever read
It also explains BLM too.
This needs an update after BLM Covid
The Green movement?
We need to back the genderqueer existentialist forces in Belgium. Either you're with Richard Simmons or you're with the terrorists.
This is riddled with biases and contempt. It would of been far more productive to construct an unbiased evaluation of what he learned instead of debasing it.
This is what you get when you take away the Sacraments of good religion.
What was the "mass movement in Russia"?
One can always find faults in other mass movements, but not in ones own...capitalism.
Capitalism allows, no it requires that humans be self responsible; that is what people hate about capitalism; the individual is the most important unit. Leftists, socialists, Islamists force a primitive tribal life on man.
Michael, you're doing the exact thing as dogmatic people on the left side of the aisle. You're basing your argument on a "us vs. them" mentality and making generalizations.
??? thanks for feed back.
Capitalism is what happens when people are free to trade with one another. It isn't really an "ism".
Communist detected.
Libertarianism is the movement of and for the future.
Ted Kaczynski brought me here : Unabomber
Trumpism anyone? Q anon?
More like Antifa or BLM if you ask me.
@@ethantidlund6388 More like both of them.
@@theotormon Agreed👍.
For the impatient, I will summarize this video:
People are People.
Trumpism perfectly summarised
All mass movements, not just Trumpism.
The Great Recession and globalization have created an immense amount of new poor people who want to reach a better time.
Describes BLM perfectly.
Video surfaces of Black Lives Matter founder saying, "We are trained Marxists"
disrn.com/news/video-surfaces-of-black-lives-matter-founder-saying-were-trained-marxists
Corporations are using the protest to destroy all small businesses and they are getting you to do their dirty work. When I see a proxy army conducting a destabilization operation under the false pretext of seeking racial and social justice. I have to call it out.
If the mainstream media establishment, popular culture, and billion dollar corporations support your 'movement'... then your 'movement' is not anti-establishment nor counter-cultural.
If they cared about the Black Community then they wouldn't have destroyed the shops and homes in the Black Community.
If that's the only thing you can think of than unfortunately, the book applies to you.
@@rappakalja5295 What you say makes absolute nonsense, but I support your right make such observations publicly and without fear of Stalinesque cancellation.
Rappa Kalja It can also apply to Antifa. In fact today it describes extremes on both sides of the political spectrum.
Best troll ever, you should of got thousands of comments.
Wonderful summary. Thank-you. I can see so much of the socialist woke ideology in this. Same with nationalist Christians, but more so with woke BS.
Much closer to Christian Nationalism than “woke BS”
Every type of crazy gets its moment to shine.
TL:DW; Mass movements are never wholesome and good, always evil and the people who get involved are stupid.
Not biased at all.
Trump Everything this guy says is through his lens.
6:25 about hatred.
“Punch a Nazi”
“No Trump, no KKK, no blah blah USA.”
so... what about vegans?
This would be much better if it wasn’t for some annoying AI voice
Explains the Trump zombies.
You are dumb this explains the left and the communist bud Bernie is a movement remember that
@@GweGwe-lu9ob It explains both, you Kool-aid sipping dumbass.
So basically, Trump voters.
lol @ hoffers corny poetry about hatred and complete lack of a scientific analysis to human behavior he was truly generations behind his time
its just weird like in a modern study of mass movements hoffer really has no credentials let alone methods to his conclusions. in a modern paper he simply wouldnt be a sited source
Only because he didn’t have a college degree. He was self-educated, but nobody respects that anymore.
that's absolute boomer nonsense. I dropped out of highschool but still got into college and then I dropped out of college too. grow up and stop being so dramatic. just because you are self educated isnt an excuse to be wrong - if anything it means you're the only one to blame!@@valerietaylor9615
SJWs and /pol/lacks in a nutshell.
We pledge allegiance to George Soros the immortal leader of the open society.
rewatching a second time - yeah man this is just ahistorical and embarrassing
This is a total load of crap. A mass movement doesn't "require" Blind Faith and True Believers. All a mass movement needs is an intelligent population with a logical direction in which to move away from irrational and unsustainable systems to a much more desirable and ultimately reachable destination which it can arrive at through the systematic accomplishment of well thought out and attainable goals. And possibly a handsome and thought provoking leader/martyr at some point along the way, but I don't think that last part is absolutely necessary, personally.
Can you provide an example?
@@bryanutility9609 I'm about too
@@cat_is_wizard7211 ok let me know I haven’t seen it done before but happy to recognize it if so.
"All a mass movement needs is an intelligent population with a logical direction in which to move away from irrational and unsustainable systems". You need to read the book, the man of the words (the intellectual) are the exact group of the population that decimate the present and current systems which then lay the groundwork necessary for the unified devotion of the fanatics (misfits, outcasts, perpetually frustrated & bored ppl) when conditions for mass movement are right. The men of action are the ones who take the reigns after the intellectual framework and fanatic devotion under a unified cause occur. The best leaders (in their ability to control this essence, not necessarily the most moral) know how far to take this control of human nature to a point where it accomplishes their goals while finding a logical conclusion, otherwise if it's left in a perpetual abstraction it just sets the newly accomplished movement into a transitory state which could be taken advantage of by another group of actors.