1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:04,200 Speaker 1: I want to welcome everyone back to part four of 2 00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:10,480 my reading of Eric Hoffer's True Believer. A reminder about 3 00:00:10,560 --> 00:00:15,320 Thomas and my watching movies and reviewing them. Head on 4 00:00:15,320 --> 00:00:18,440 over to freemann Beyond the Wall dot com forward slash movies. 5 00:00:18,800 --> 00:00:20,480 Do you see the movies that we've done. The last 6 00:00:20,480 --> 00:00:23,239 one was Fantasm we did there for Halloween, and we 7 00:00:23,280 --> 00:00:26,359 are getting ready to record our next Keep it a 8 00:00:26,399 --> 00:00:29,920 secret as to what it is. Right now? All right, 9 00:00:31,039 --> 00:00:34,640 let's see where a Hoffer goes with part three, United 10 00:00:34,640 --> 00:00:38,679 action and self sacrifice, and he has a preface to 11 00:00:38,719 --> 00:00:43,200 this one. The vigor of a mass movement stems from 12 00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:47,159 the propensity of its followers for united action and self sacrifice. 13 00:00:47,479 --> 00:00:53,000 When we ascribe the success of a movement to its faith, doctrine, propaganda, leadership, ruthlessness, 14 00:00:53,200 --> 00:00:55,840 and so on, we are but referring to instruments of 15 00:00:55,920 --> 00:01:00,119 unification and to means used to inculcate a readiness or 16 00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:04,359 self sacrifice. It is perhaps impossible to understand the nature 17 00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:06,920 of mass movements unless it is recognized that the chief 18 00:01:06,920 --> 00:01:11,560 preoccupation is to foster, perfect and perpetuate a facility for 19 00:01:11,680 --> 00:01:17,359 united action and self sacrifice. Correct, But there is an 20 00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:23,719 ends as well, and self sacrifice here he The way 21 00:01:23,719 --> 00:01:26,280 I have to read this as to what I've been 22 00:01:26,280 --> 00:01:30,799 reading what I've read so far, is that that's a 23 00:01:30,840 --> 00:01:36,280 bad thing. That people should be individuals, and by joining 24 00:01:36,359 --> 00:01:41,000 a movement you've given up your individuality and embraced collectivism. 25 00:01:42,359 --> 00:01:44,959 To know the processes by which such a facility is 26 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:48,159 engendered is to grasp the inner logic of most of 27 00:01:48,200 --> 00:01:52,239 the characteristic attitudes and practices of an active mass movement. 28 00:01:53,560 --> 00:01:56,599 With few exceptions, any group or organization which tries, for 29 00:01:56,640 --> 00:01:59,640 one reason or another to create and maintain compact unity 30 00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:04,120 and a constant readiness for self sacrifice usually manifest to peculiarities. 31 00:02:04,640 --> 00:02:09,319 The peculiarities both noble and base of a mass movement. 32 00:02:09,800 --> 00:02:11,840 On the other hand, a mass movement is bound to 33 00:02:11,879 --> 00:02:15,520 lose much which distinguishes it from other types of organizations 34 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:19,479 when it relaxes its collective compactness and begins to count 35 00:02:19,479 --> 00:02:25,639 in its self interests as legitimate motive of activity. Okay, 36 00:02:26,680 --> 00:02:29,560 in times of peace and prosperity, a democratic nation and 37 00:02:29,599 --> 00:02:36,039 an institutionalized association of more or less free individuals. Okay, 38 00:02:36,080 --> 00:02:38,639 let me read that again. In times of peace and prosperity, 39 00:02:39,240 --> 00:02:42,960 a democratic nation is an institutionalized association of more or 40 00:02:43,039 --> 00:02:46,879 less free individuals. On the other hand, in times of crisis, 41 00:02:46,919 --> 00:02:50,599 when the nation's existence is threatened and it tries to 42 00:02:50,639 --> 00:02:55,039 reinforce its unity and generate in its people a readiness 43 00:02:55,039 --> 00:02:58,560 for self sacrifice, it almost always assumes in some degree 44 00:02:58,599 --> 00:03:02,159 the character of a mass move all right, in times 45 00:03:02,159 --> 00:03:06,960 of peace and prosperity, a democratic nation is an institutionalized 46 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:12,479 association of more or free of more or less free individuals. 47 00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:21,240 Correct democracy promotes and champions individualism, and when that starts 48 00:03:21,280 --> 00:03:26,039 to fail, because it's going to fail, people revert back 49 00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:33,960 to collectivism, coming together people of like mind, who look alike, 50 00:03:33,960 --> 00:03:37,520 who share the same language, share the same ethnicity, and 51 00:03:37,599 --> 00:03:41,599 he calls that a mass movement. The same is true 52 00:03:41,639 --> 00:03:45,000 of religious and revolutionary organizations. Whether or not they develop 53 00:03:45,039 --> 00:03:47,800 into mass movements depends less on the doctrine they preach 54 00:03:48,560 --> 00:03:51,439 and the program they project, that on the degree of 55 00:03:51,479 --> 00:03:54,960 their preoccupation with unity and the readiness for self sacrifice. 56 00:03:55,479 --> 00:04:01,759 Any religious is going to be about a group. Revolutionary organization, 57 00:04:03,240 --> 00:04:10,400 I mean, depends on how you define revolutionary. The important 58 00:04:10,439 --> 00:04:13,520 point is that in the poignantly frustrated. The propensities for 59 00:04:13,639 --> 00:04:26,160 united action and self sacrifice arise spontaneously. I spontaneously. Okay. 60 00:04:26,879 --> 00:04:29,680 It should be possible, therefore, to gain some clues concerning 61 00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:32,680 the nature of these propensities and the technique to be 62 00:04:32,720 --> 00:04:37,079 employed for their deliberate inculcation, by tracing their spontaneous emergence 63 00:04:37,079 --> 00:04:42,120 in the frustrated mind. The frustrated mind, I would so far, 64 00:04:42,680 --> 00:04:46,079 if I were to define frustrated mind by what I've 65 00:04:46,079 --> 00:04:51,120 read so far, is the mind that realizes, even subconsciously, 66 00:04:51,279 --> 00:04:56,360 that collectivism is natural and is being forced into individualism, 67 00:04:56,879 --> 00:05:00,439 and individualism is causing everything to fall apart, because that's 68 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:04,600 what it does. What ails to frustrated it is the 69 00:05:04,639 --> 00:05:11,680 consciousness of an irredeemably blemish self. See that's this is 70 00:05:11,680 --> 00:05:18,079 where he's just wrong. And I really like everybody listening 71 00:05:18,120 --> 00:05:21,079 to this has picked up a book, read half of 72 00:05:21,120 --> 00:05:25,519 it and stop reading, whether because they just were like, 73 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:28,399 I don't I'm not going to this is garbage, I'm 74 00:05:28,439 --> 00:05:31,079 not going to read any more of it, or just 75 00:05:31,160 --> 00:05:34,240 because you most of the time it is distracted by 76 00:05:34,279 --> 00:05:39,680 another book. Many such cases. My correct At this point, 77 00:05:39,720 --> 00:05:43,920 if I was reading this alone, i'd probably just put 78 00:05:43,959 --> 00:05:49,319 it aside, because I mean, it's it's insane. And tell me, 79 00:05:49,639 --> 00:05:52,480 if you're listening to this, tell me if you think 80 00:05:52,519 --> 00:05:55,199 I should just stop reading this, if you've heard enough, 81 00:05:55,199 --> 00:05:57,040 if it is you're the fourth episode, this is the 82 00:05:57,079 --> 00:05:59,879 fourth episode. I'm going to finish the fourth episode. Tell 83 00:05:59,879 --> 00:06:01,759 me if you think you've heard enough you don't need 84 00:06:01,800 --> 00:06:03,839 to hear any more, or if you want me to 85 00:06:03,879 --> 00:06:07,000 finish this. I usually don't do this. I usually do 86 00:06:07,079 --> 00:06:09,360 things because I want to. But I want to get 87 00:06:09,439 --> 00:06:12,439 your opinion on this as the people who are listening 88 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:14,879 to it. Some of you may just be at the 89 00:06:14,879 --> 00:06:17,439 point where you don't. You're like, I'm not even gonna 90 00:06:17,480 --> 00:06:20,279 listen to anymore of this. Pete. You know, Pete's kind 91 00:06:20,279 --> 00:06:23,439 of wasting his time. You might believe that, and maybe 92 00:06:23,480 --> 00:06:27,160 I am. But give me your opinion. Should I finish 93 00:06:27,279 --> 00:06:32,319 this book probably would be. I was counting five or 94 00:06:32,360 --> 00:06:35,920 six more episodes, So I mean, if you've heard enough, 95 00:06:36,759 --> 00:06:40,199 all right, I'm gonna keep going. Their chief desire is 96 00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:46,879 to escape the self again, and this Hoffer is a 97 00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:52,079 radical individualists. And it is this desire which manifests itself 98 00:06:52,120 --> 00:06:58,560 in a propensity for united action and self sacrifice, yeah, family, 99 00:06:59,560 --> 00:07:04,519 ethnic toy, things that he seems to you not put 100 00:07:04,600 --> 00:07:08,839 much in, not put much importance in. The revulsion from 101 00:07:08,879 --> 00:07:12,439 an unwanted self and the impulse to forget it, mask it, 102 00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:16,319 slough it off, and lose it produce both the readiness 103 00:07:16,319 --> 00:07:18,800 to sacrifice the self and willingness to dissolve it by 104 00:07:18,839 --> 00:07:24,759 losing one's individual distinctness in a compact, collective whole. Moreover, 105 00:07:24,800 --> 00:07:27,800 the estrangement from the self is usually accompanied by a 106 00:07:27,839 --> 00:07:32,240 train of diverse and seemingly unrelated attitudes and impulses, which 107 00:07:32,240 --> 00:07:35,360 a closer probing reveals to be essential factors in the 108 00:07:35,399 --> 00:07:39,959 process of unification and of self sacrifice. In other words, 109 00:07:40,519 --> 00:07:44,160 frustration not only gives rise to the desire for unity 110 00:07:44,240 --> 00:07:47,680 and the readiness for self sacrifice, but also creates a 111 00:07:47,720 --> 00:07:53,120 mechanism for their realization. Such diverse phenomena as a deprecation 112 00:07:54,560 --> 00:07:58,439 of the present, a facility for make believe, a proneness 113 00:07:58,480 --> 00:08:02,680 to hate, a readiness to imitate credility, a readiness to 114 00:08:02,720 --> 00:08:06,279 attempt the impossible, and many others which crowd the minds 115 00:08:06,279 --> 00:08:10,439 of the intensely frustrated. Are as. We shall see unifying 116 00:08:10,519 --> 00:08:16,720 agents and prompters of recklessness. In section forty four one 117 00:08:16,839 --> 00:08:20,079 oh three, an attempt will be made to show that 118 00:08:20,199 --> 00:08:24,199 when we set out to inculcate in people a facility 119 00:08:24,639 --> 00:08:28,480 for united action and self sacrifice, we do all we can, 120 00:08:28,680 --> 00:08:31,240 whether we know it or not, to induce and encourage 121 00:08:31,240 --> 00:08:34,519 an estrangement from the self, and that we strike to 122 00:08:34,600 --> 00:08:38,080 evoke and cultivate in them many of the diverse attitudes 123 00:08:38,120 --> 00:08:42,279 and impulses which accompany the spontaneous estrangement from the self 124 00:08:42,320 --> 00:08:45,000 in the frustrated In short, we shall try to show 125 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:47,720 that the technique of an active mass movement consists basically 126 00:08:47,759 --> 00:08:52,080 in the inculcation and cultivation of proclivities and responses indigenous 127 00:08:52,120 --> 00:08:55,279 to the frustrated mind. I'm going to make an executive 128 00:08:55,320 --> 00:09:00,120 decision here and say I'm done with this book. If 129 00:09:00,159 --> 00:09:04,440 you made it this far, God bless you. You're amazing. 130 00:09:05,039 --> 00:09:11,679 But this is just insulting horseshit from a radical individualist 131 00:09:11,720 --> 00:09:16,200 who I really can't find much out there about his background, 132 00:09:16,919 --> 00:09:22,639 but I'm pretty sure I know what it is. And 133 00:09:22,759 --> 00:09:26,039 to the people who have recommended this book to me 134 00:09:26,639 --> 00:09:31,120 because they like it, we don't probably don't have much 135 00:09:31,120 --> 00:09:35,960 in common at all. All right, take care of y'all, 136 00:09:36,440 --> 00:09:40,039 and yeah, I'll just find another book and start reading.