PSYCHOSCAPES: Kindling Extravagant Hope

“In times of change, learners inherit the earth,

while the learned find themselves

beautifully equipped to deal with

a world that no longer exists.”

– Eric Hoffer

I became a fan of Eric Hoffer after reading his best-selling book "The True Believer." At the time, I was a young man recently back from Vietnam working union construction and going to college when I could afford it. I had a special attraction to Hoffer, a longshoreman from San Francisco because he was a union man like me. I relished how he destroyed the stereotype of an intellectual as some frail creature cloistered in an ivy tower.

He was the exact opposite: Self-educated and down-to-earth: a blue-collar man of the people. College does an excellent job of training a person on how to color inside the lines, sometimes at the expense of being blind to exciting new worlds that dwell outside those lines. Look at those famous artists who were known for breaking new ground, maybe because they never went to art school: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Frida Kahlo, Vincent Van Gogh come to mind.

Another point of commonality: I do my research in the same unorthodox way as Hoffer did, although I now do it online and in Kindle. From notes I took last century, here's his take on the subject: "I go to the library, I pick up the things that interest me, I use whatever comes my way. And I believe that if you have a good theory, the things you need will come your way. You'll be lucky.”^⁠1

I'm revisiting "The True Believer" now, a book written over 70 years ago, because his analysis of mass movements is so spot-on: It's uncanny how precisely his thoughts about the nature of fascism, Nazism, and communism after WW II foretell the resurgence of authoritarianism today. To my way of thinking, the power of Hoffer's analysis comes from being a working man, understanding in his gut that at their roots, such movements are not ideological or political but personal and psychological.

Hoffer's book shows why folks are attracted to mass movements, whether it be Nazism or Trumpism: It is when their self-advancement is blocked and they feel devalued by society. For these true believers, Hoffer writes: "Their innermost craving is for a new life—a rebirth—or, failing this, a chance to acquire new elements of pride, confidence, hope, a sense of purpose and worth by an identification with a holy cause. An active mass movement offers them opportunities for both."^⁠2

Trump supporters complain that white Americans are being replaced by minorities and prevented from moving up in society by an educated elite who look down on them as “deplorables.” Hoffer shows how such grievances breed a “passionate hatred,” which, in a psychological sense, gives meaning to their lives.

“Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. Thus people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for both.”^⁠3

Hoffer makes a crucial point about how to move forward, whether we are on the right or the left. “Those who would transform a nation or the world cannot do so by breeding and captaining discontent or by demonstrating the reasonableness and desirability of the intended changes or by coercing people into a new way of life. They must know how to kindle and fan an extravagant hope.”^⁠4

Trump, the ultimate reality show host, promised extravagant hope with his galvanizing rhetoric about Making America Great Again, promising to restore folks – in particular, white men – to a state of maximum potency in a fantasy world that never really existed. Perhaps it was no accident he reportedly kept a copy of Adolf Hitler's speeches by his bedside. Meanwhile, democrats drone on about brain-numbing policy proposals which put people to sleep or drive them to drink.

Liberals need to wake up: We need to proclaim our extravagant hopes for building a better world for us all because, as Hoffer understood “the differences between the conservative and the radical seem to spring mainly from their attitude toward the future. Fear of the future causes us to lean against and cling to the present, while faith in the future renders us receptive to change.”^⁠5

Let’s listen to Eric Hoffer! It’s time to kindle and fan our extravagant hopes to create positive change– before it is too late!

xxx

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