--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Excerpts from "The True Believer," by Eric Hoffer, 1952
> and other of his works. I'm posting them because they may
> be helpful in understanding why so many TM True Believers
> are so threatened by the existence of Fairfield Life and
> its credo ("What is wanted is not the will to believe,
> but the wish to find out, which is the exact opposite.")
> Read through them and see if they don't remind you of
> a few people whose words you read here every week...
Barry is responding to this from me:
"Anyone familiar with Hoffer's work knows that
his 'True Believer' label is *ludicrously*
inapplicable to most of those to whom Barry
attempts to apply it here."
Thanks to Barry for providing quotes from
Hoffer to document my assertion.
>
> ****************************************************
> ****************************************************
>
> The uncompromising attitude is more indicative of an
> inner uncertainty than a deep conviction. The
> implacable stand is directed more against the doubt
> within than the assailant without.
>
> ****************************************************
>
> A doctrine insulates the devout not only against the
> realities around them but also against their own selves.
> The fanatical believer is not conscious of his envy,
> malice, pettiness and dishonesty. There is a wall of
> words between his consciousness and his real self.
>
> ****************************************************
>
> 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.
>
> ****************************************************
>
> The effectiveness of a doctrine does not come from
> its meaning but from its certitude. No doctrine
> however profound and sublime will be effective unless
> it is presented as the embodiment of the one and only
> truth. It must be the one word from which all things
> are and all things speak. Crude absurdities, trivial
> nonsense and sublime truths are equally potent in
> readying people for self-sacrifice if they are
> accepted as the sole, eternal truth.
>
> It is obvious, therefore, that in order to be effective
> a doctrine must not be understood, but has to be
> believed in. We can be absolutely certain only about
> things we do not understand. A doctrine that is
> understood is shorn of its strength. Once we understand
> a thing, it is as if it had originated in us. And,
> clearly, those who are asked to renounce the self and
> sacrifice it cannot see eternal certitude in anything
> that originates in that self. The fact that they
> understand a thing fully impairs its validity and
> certitude in their eyes.
>
> The devout are always urged to seek the absolute truth
> with their hearts and not their minds. "It is the heart
> which is conscious of God, not the reason." [--Pascal]
> Rudolph Hess, when swearing in the entire Nazi party in
> 1934, exhorted his hearers: "Do not seek Adolph Hitler
> with your brains; all of you will find him with the
> strength of your hearts."
> ...
> 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.
> When some part of a doctrine is relatively simple,
> there is a tendency among the faithful to complicate
> it and obscure it. 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. He seems to use words as
> if he were ignorant of their true meaning. Hence,
> too, his taste for quibbling, hairsplitting, and
> scholastic tortuousness.
>
> ****************************************************
>
> To know a person's religion we need not listen to his
> profession of faith but must find his brand of intolerance.
>
> ****************************************************
>
> The savior who wants to turn men into angels is as much a
> hater of human nature as the totalitarian despot who wants
> to turn them into puppets.
>
> ****************************************************
>
> The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for
> his own self, the more ready he is to claim all
> excellence for his nation, his religion, his race,
> or his holy cause.
>
> ****************************************************
>
> Take away hatred from some people, and you have men
> without faith.
>
> ****************************************************
>
> The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the
> fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not
> whether there is a god or not.
>
> ****************************************************
>
> The uncompromising attitude is more indicative of an
> inner uncertainty than a deep conviction. The
> implacable stand is directed more against the doubt
> within than the assailant without.
>
> ****************************************************
>
> Vehemence is the expression of a blind effort to
> support and uphold something that can never stand on
> its own...Whether it is our own meaningless self we
> are upholding, or some doctrine devoid of evidence,
> we can do it only in a frenzy of faith.
>
> ****************************************************
>
> There is a powerful craving in most of us to see
> ourselves as instruments in the hands of others and
> thus free ourselves from the responsibility for acts
> which are prompted by our own questionable
> inclinations and impulses.
>
> ****************************************************
>
> A man is likely to mind his own business when it is
> worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off
> his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's
> business.
>
> ****************************************************
>
> There is always a chance that he who sets himself up
> as his brother's keeper will end up by being his
> jail-keeper.
>
> ****************************************************
>
> When we believe ourselves in possession of the only
> truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common
> everyday truths.
>
> ****************************************************
>
> People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick
> the boot that kicks them.
>
> ****************************************************
>
> I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of
> my mind.
>
> ****************************************************
>
> Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.
>
> ****************************************************
>
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