Biography
When he was seven years old, his mother suddenly died, and the boy was left in the care of a governess. That same year he became blind for no apparent reason.
Eric Hoffer was born on July 25, 1902 in the New York suburb of the Bronx into a family of German immigrants. The blind boy was not even accepted into primary school. He spent in pitch darkness eight for long years childhood.
At the age of fifteen, again at unclear circumstances, his vision returned to him. Doctors could not explain this change and warned Eric that he could go blind again at any minute. Driven by desperation, Hoffer began to read everything he could get his hands on, using every moment to try to cram in as many words and knowledge as possible before darkness fell again.
That same year, the father fell ill, and the family began a steady slide into poverty. The boy had to find a job so that he and his father would not die of hunger. There wasn't much choice: a fifteen-year-old boy without primary education could only count on the dirtiest and low paid job. Now he had no time for school.
Hoffer never received a formal education. He never spent a single day at school or university. He acquired all the knowledge on his own, from books that he constantly carried with him. Hoffer spent the time when his peers were in school in blindness and loneliness. In those years when his peers were studying at colleges and universities, the young farm laborer performed the most hard work: loader at the port, dishwasher in cafes and restaurants, woodcutter, railway handyman.
Wherever he was, he always had a book in his pocket. Hoffer later recalled that he chose his first books solely by size, thickness and font size: only small books fit into his pockets. Ideal option for him there was a thick, small book with small print. The first book that fully satisfied these criteria was a collection of essays by Montaigne.
In 1920, when Eric was eighteen years old, his father died. There was nothing keeping him in New York anymore. Alone, without money, education and any social prospects, he decided to move to the southwest, to California, where it was easier to live without money. “After my father’s death,” he later recalled, “I realized that I would have to take care of myself. I already definitely knew a few things: first, that I didn’t want to work in a factory; secondly, that I cannot stand being dependent on the favor of some superior; thirdly, that I will always be poor; fourthly, that I need to leave New York. Logic dictated that for the poor the most the best region- California."
He spent the next twenty years on the road, homeless, wandering around California, moving from one seasonal job to another. All this time he did not stop reading books that he borrowed from libraries.
Until 1941, he continued to lead a nomadic life, moving from place to place in search of work to “sustain his life.” With the onset of the war, he tried to enlist in the army, but did not pass medical commission. Then he joined the longshoremen's union, and worked at the port for the next twenty-five years, until 1967. Several days a week he performed the most difficult physical work in the port, and devoted the rest of his time to reading. Gradually, he began to write down his thoughts, which began to take shape in a future book.
His first - and most significant - book was published in 1951. It was called "True Believer". This work was completely different from all the books of that time. She completely ignored all the fashionable trends of that time, especially Freudianism, which then completely absorbed the entire American psychological science. Eschewing the academic establishment, Hoffer wrote completely original book, full of precise, bright and surprisingly laconic thoughts about the nature of power, social movements And inner life of people.
Fifty years later, Hoffer's first book appeared in Russian. Its weight and importance have only increased over time. Written just a few years after the end of the Second World War, at a time when dreams of world peace and brotherhood were replaced by the bitter reality of a new round of military confrontation and hopelessness cold war between the two superpowers, Hoffer's work is still radical for the gray majority, and his statements are just as sharp and unpleasant for the average ear. And there are still more thoughts there than words.
Still scientific world and the "general public" don't know what to make of Hoffer. He is labeled as a “modern Machiavelli” and an eccentric. Twenty years after his death and fifty years after the first edition of The True Believer, the name of Eric Hoffer is still little known, especially to the Russian-speaking reader.
The book "The True Believer" is piercing gaze on human society from the outside. Such a clear description of the nature of people could only be given by an outsider who has never found his place in modern society.
Even after becoming an honorary professor at the University of Berkeley, Hoffer gave lectures in work clothes and appeared at meetings of the academic council after a heavy physical work in Port. He lived his whole life alone, but he was never burdened by it. He said that true melancholy and loneliness lie in the inability to be alone with oneself and think for oneself.
In 1982, President Reagan presented Eric Hoffer with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest government honor a civilian can receive in the United States.
“The True Believer” is included in the compulsory program of the “Politics” course. Just a hundred pages long, it contains concentrated wisdom - the result of years of analysis, reflection, hard work and insight. human nature. This book cannot be read once. With each new reading, she reveals new deep layers of thought. The release of Hoffer's first book is a true civic act of the Alpina Business Books publishing house, or, as they say in the author's homeland, “social service” - “a service to society.”
Hoffer's life left him with little room for illusion. In “The True Believer” there is no watery reasoning, careless rattling of one’s scholarship, drawing and narcissism, which plague many works of scientists who have money, a family, a well-paid prestigious position and other attributes of social status.
One of the main ideas of this book is a passion for the world around us or personal life other people is an attempt to compensate for the lack of meaning in our own life. This book is still the best explanation of the existence of any public organization, religions, political party or cult, as well as the reasons for people's passion for mass movements - from terrorist organizations to street gangs.
Eric Hoffer was way ahead of his time. Fifty years after the publication of True Believer, it remains one of the most significant and most underrated works of our time.
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
Eric Hoffer
In times of change, those who learn will inherit the Earth... and those who have already learned find themselves well equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists. - Eric Hoffer
His first - and most significant - book was published in 1951. It was called "True Believer". This work was completely different from all the books of that time. Eschewing the academic establishment, Hoffer has written a wholly original book, full of smart, vivid, and surprisingly succinct thoughts on the nature of power, social movements, and the inner lives of people.
The book “The True Believer” is a piercing look at human society from the outside. Just a hundred pages long, it contains concentrated wisdom—the result of years of analysis, thought, hard work, and insight into human nature. This book cannot be read once. With each new reading, she reveals new deep layers of thought.
From which E. Hoffer himself talks about his youth: “I never went to school. Until the age of fifteen he was almost blind. When my vision returned, I was overcome by an insatiable hunger for the printed word. I read everything indiscriminately - everything that came across in English and German languages... After the death of my father (in 1920, when Eric was eighteen years old - O.P.) I realized that I would have to take care of myself. I already definitely knew a few things: first, that I didn't want to work in a factory; secondly, that I cannot stand being dependent on the favor of some superior; thirdly, that I will always be poor; fourthly, that I need to leave New York. Logic dictated that the best place for the poor is California.”
Eric Hoffer was born on July 25, 1902 in the New York suburb of the Bronx into a family of German immigrants. When he was seven years old, his mother suddenly died, and the boy was left in the care of a governess. That same year he became blind for no apparent reason. The blind boy was not even accepted into primary school. He spent eight long years of his childhood in pitch darkness.
At the age of fifteen, again under unclear circumstances, his vision returned to him. Doctors could not explain this change and warned Eric that he could go blind again at any minute. Driven by desperation, Hoffer began to read everything he could get his hands on, using every moment to try to cram in as many words and knowledge as possible before darkness fell again.
Hoffer never received a formal education. He never spent a single day at school or university. He acquired all the knowledge on his own, from books that he constantly carried with him. Hoffer spent the time when his peers were in school in blindness and loneliness. In those years, when his peers were studying at colleges and universities, the young farm laborer performed the hardest work: a loader at the port, a dishwasher in cafes and restaurants, a woodcutter, a railway handyman.
Wherever he was, he always had a book in his pocket. Hoffer later recalled that he chose his first books solely by size, thickness and font size: only small books fit into his pockets. The ideal option for him was a thick, small book with small print. The first book that fully satisfied these criteria was a collection of essays by Montaigne.
Until 1941, he continued to lead a nomadic life, moving from place to place in search of work to “sustain his life.” With the onset of war, he tried to enlist in the army, but failed the medical examination. Then he joined the longshoremen's union, and worked at the port for the next twenty-five years, until 1967. Several days a week he performed the most difficult physical work in the port, and devoted the rest of his time to reading. Gradually, he began to write down his thoughts, which began to take shape in a future book.
Until now, the scientific world and the “general public” do not know what to do with Hoffer. He is labeled as a “modern Machiavelli” and an eccentric. Even after becoming a professor emeritus at the University of Berkeley, Hoffer gave lectures in work clothes and appeared at meetings of the academic council after hard physical work in the port. He lived his whole life alone, but he was never burdened by it. He said that true melancholy and loneliness lie in the inability to be alone with oneself and think for oneself.
In 1982, President Reagan presented Eric Hoffer with the Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest government award a civilian can receive in the United States.
The study of a classic of social science recognized in the USA is devoted to the nature and content of mass movements of humanity - be it parties, religious movements, national or social revolutions. How can we explain the attractiveness for the masses of such controversial figures in world history and spiritual culture as Christ, Buddha, Mohammed, Hitler, Stalin? By identifying patterns, the author gives original answers.
Written in convincing language, the book will be of interest not only to historians, philosophers, and political scientists, but also to anyone interested in problems of social science.
Reprinted several times in the USA. It is being published for the first time in our country.
Eric Hoffer
True believer. Thoughts on the nature of mass movements
Foreword by the scientific editor
The name of the American thinker Eric Hoffer (1902–1983) still remains insufficiently known to our readers. His first and perhaps most significant of the nine books he published, The True Believer, is a meditation on the nature of mass movements.
The work, which has become a classic in the USA, still does not have the proper resonance in the world. European continent. Indeed, what seems to be new can be said in this area after G. Le Bon, G. Tarde, Z. Freud, M. Weber, X. Ortega y Gasset, C. Jung, E. Canetti and many others, who made the nature of mass consciousness and mass behavior the subject of their analysis?
One of possible reasons This lack of attention is due to the fact that, unlike the names mentioned, which significantly influenced the mentality of the culture of the 20th century, Hoffer is perceived as a person outside the established academic environment. A longshoreman, a farm laborer, a tramp - he is a striking example of the American phenomenon of self-made man. Suddenly blind at the age of seven, he regarded his vision, which was returned eight years later in an equally incomprehensible way, as a gift that, due to its insecurity, must be used to the maximum extent. Fearing that he might go blind again, Hoffer attacked the books with a greed spurred on by the real existential threat of losing his sight.
The appeal of Hoffer's book lies in the originality and independence of his thinking. While American psychology and social theory experienced the predominant influence of Freud's ideas in the middle of the last century, Hoffer was able to identify directions for his research beyond what could be designated as mainstream. Key problem human existence, in his opinion, is the presence of feelings self-esteem(self-esteem). At the same time, a person faces the constant danger of losing this feeling, which is compensated without any success by his involvement in various shapes public life, and, as a rule, leading to oblivion of the meaning of one’s existence.
Hoffer, less than anyone else, gives reason to reproach himself for having a feeling of hostility towards what is usually designated by the concept " masses". For him, "man-mass", just like for Ortega y Gasset, is a universal phenomenon that affects each of us. Dissolution in the mass has as its result a decrease mental abilities, regardless of the level of education and culture of those involved. As a result, we are dealing with behavior predetermined by influence elementary impulses and little susceptible to the arguments of reason.
The situation is only getting worse in the atmosphere of globalization processes modern world and such influence of means mass media on individual consciousness, which multiplies the possibilities of transmitting given images and pictures of reality. The conformity, impersonality, anonymity of forms of thinking, of which we inevitably are the bearer, mostly without realizing it, decisively questions the dominant paradigm of perceiving the human being as animal rationale. In turn, the idea of incompleteness, openness, substantial indeterminacy of human existence, so characteristic of the insights of the 20th century, confronts with extraordinary acuteness modern society the task of discovering ways and means of endowing a person with what has hitherto too often been perceived as naturally belonging to him by definition.
“Most of life is one continuous effort aimed at escaping the need to think,” says the hero of one of O. Huxley’s stories. Should we once again be reminded that the current “massification” of the planet may contribute to the aggravation of this already extremely serious danger?
There is no doubt that we are dealing not only with theoretical problem. The 20th century provided more than rich food for understanding how dangerous, and sometimes tragic, the consequences of mass movements can be. The ability to properly learn from past experiences depends greatly on our willingness to heed the warnings contained in Eric Hoffer's book.
The only thing we readers should resist is the temptation to attribute the content of everything contained in the book to the account of others. We need to find the courage to look at the image and discover ourselves, because we have every reason to say, to paraphrase the words of Rockwell Kent: “This is us, Lord!”
L. L. Mikhailov.
A few words about the author
Eric Hoffer is now [in 1962] sixty years old; For the last twenty years - since 1943 - he has been working as a longshoreman on the California coast of the United States, mainly in San Francisco. Before that, he worked as a seasonal farm laborer, a worker in gold mines in Nevada, and was a vagabond.
Eric Hoffer is a self-taught, "free philosopher." He published two books, one of which is "The True Believer."
This is what E. Hoffer himself tells about his youth: “I never went to school. Until the age of fifteen I was almost blind. When my sight returned to me, I was seized by an insatiable hunger for the printed word. I read everything indiscriminately - everything that came across in English and German... After the death of my father (he was a carpenter), I realized that I would have to take care of myself. I already definitely knew several things: firstly, that I didn’t want to work in a factory; secondly, that I couldn’t stand it; depending on the favor of some boss; thirdly, that I will always be poor; fourthly, that I need to leave New York. Logic dictated that the best place for a poor person is California.”
During the Depression, for ten years, young E. Hoffer labored around California in busy season agricultural work; labored along with other “new pioneers” of that difficult time, who were called “Arches” and “Okies” - these were farmers from the states of Arkansas and Oklahoma, ruined by drought, who rushed in thousands - together with their families, whole caravans - to California (for the Russian reader this the epic is known from the novel "The Grapes of Wrath").
From the experience of living with “arches” and “eyes”, E. Hoffer developed an interest in mass movements. During the years of reflection and work on the book, E. Hoffer wandered a lot: wherever he was, everywhere - in dozens of towns - he signed up for libraries, where he took books to read; when I had money, I rented a room next to the library to be closer to books, reference books, so that nothing would interfere with my concentrated thinking and writing.
(From the preface to the 1962 edition)
A person wants to be great, but he sees how small he is; he wants to be happy, but sees how unhappy he is; he wants to be perfect, but he himself is full of shortcomings; he wants to be loved and respected by everyone, but with his shortcomings he evokes contempt and disgust. This duality of his position gives rise to passions that are criminal and unfair towards Others: a burning hatred of the truth that is bitter for him is born in him.
B. Pascal. Thoughts.
Preface
Dedicated to Margaret Anderson, without whose encouragement - from afar, across the entire continent, this book would not have been written.
This book is about some of the features common to all mass movements: be they religious movements, national or social revolutions. This book does not claim that all mass movements are homogeneous, but they all have some characteristic basic features that give them a “family resemblance.”
All mass movements generate in their followers a willingness to sacrifice themselves and act with united forces; all mass movements, regardless of their programs and doctrines, evoke fanaticism, enthusiasm, fervent hopes, hatred, intolerance; all of them can, in certain areas of life, cause a powerful flow of activity; they all require blind faith and unreasoning loyalty.
All mass movements, no matter how different their goals and doctrines, find their first followers among people of one particular type and attract people of the same way of thinking.
Eric Hoffer - American philosopher of German origin, worked on issues social philosophy. Author of 9 books and many articles.
Hoffer was born on July 25, 1902 in the Bronx, New York. At the age of seven, after the death of his mother, he became blind for no apparent reason and was in complete darkness for eight years. When the boy turned 15, a miracle happened - his vision returned. The doctors, shocked by such an “epiphany,” warned that blindness could return at any moment, and the young man grabbed books to contain as much as possible in case darkness came again.
That same year, my father fell ill, and the family began to rapidly become poor. The boy had to find a job so that he and his father would not die of hunger. He worked as a loader at the port, a dishwasher in cafes and restaurants, a woodcutter, and a railway laborer.
Hoffer never received a formal education: he did not graduate from high school or attend university. I acquired all the knowledge on my own, from books that I constantly carried with me. When he turned 18, his father died.
“After my father died,” Hoffer recalled, “I realized that I would have to take care of myself. I already definitely knew a few things: first, that I didn't want to work in a factory; secondly, that I cannot stand being dependent on the favor of some superior; thirdly, that I will always be poor...”
He spent the next twenty years on the road, homeless, wandering around California, moving from one seasonal job to another. All this time he did not stop reading books that he borrowed from libraries.
Until 1941, he continued to lead a nomadic life, moving from place to place in search of work to “sustain his life.” With the onset of war, he tried to enlist in the army, but failed the medical examination. Then he joined the longshoremen's union, and worked at the port for the next twenty-five years, until 1967, collaborating with many periodicals. At the end of the 1960s, Hoffer gave two large interviews, after which he retired from active social activities.
His first - and most significant - book was published in 1951. It was called "True Believer". This work was completely different from all the books of that time. She completely ignored all the fashionable trends of that time, especially Freudianism, which then completely absorbed all of American psychological science. Eschewing the academic establishment, Hoffer has written a wholly original book, full of smart, vivid, and surprisingly succinct thoughts on the nature of power, social movements, and the inner lives of people.
In 1970 he co-founded (with Lili Fabilli) the award for short essay(Lili Fabilli and Eric Hoffer Laconic Essay Prize) for students, faculty and staff of the University of Berkeley. In May 1971, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the private Stonehill College.
In 1982, President Reagan presented Eric Hoffer with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest government honor a civilian can receive in the United States.
Eric Hoffer died on May 21, 1983.
On January 1, 2001, the international book prize named after. Eric Hoffer.
The most important works of Eric Hoffer:
1951 The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature of Mass Movements
1955 The Passionate State of Mind, and Other Aphorisms
1963 The Ordeal of Change
1967 The Temper of Our Time
1969 Working and Thinking on the Waterfront: A Journal, June 1958 to May 1959
1971 First Things, Last Things
1973 Reflections on the Human Condition
1976 In Our Time
1979 Before the Sabbath
1982 Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
1983 Truth Imagined
...what happens to Israel happens to all of us. If Israel perishes, our destiny will be the Catastrophe...
Jews strange people. Things that are allowed to other peoples are prohibited to Jews.
Other nations expel thousands, even millions, but they do not have a refugee problem. Russia and Czechoslovakia kicked out the Germans, Turkey kicked out a million Greeks, Algeria kicked out a million French, Indonesia kicked out God knows how many Chinese - and no one said a word.
But in the case of Israel, the Arabs who fled from there became eternal refugees. Everyone is insisting that Israel take back every single one of the Arabs. Arnold Toynbee considers this an atrocity worse than Nazi crimes.
Other nations, after defeating their enemies, dictate peace terms to them. But when Israel is victorious, it must sue for peace. Everyone wants Jews to behave like the only true Christians in the world.
Other nations can survive even if they are defeated.
But if Israel is defeated, it will be destroyed.
If Nasser had succeeded last June, Israel would have been wiped off the face of the earth and no one would have lifted a finger to save the Jews.
No country, including America, feels bound by the obligations given to the Jews; these treaties are not even worth the paper they are written on.
Shouts of indignation and protests swept across the world when Vietnamese began to die in Vietnam or when two blacks were executed in Rhodesia. But when Hitler exterminated the Jews, no one cared.
The Swedes, ready to break off relations with America because of what we are doing in Vietnam, did not make a sound while the extermination of the Jews was in progress. But they supplied Hitler with selected iron ore and ball bearings, and also serviced trains transporting German troops to Norway.
Jews are alone in the world. If Israel can survive, it will be through Jewish effort and Jewish ingenuity.
And yet it is Israel that is our only reliable and unconditional ally. We can rely on Israel more than Israel can rely on us.
And you only need to imagine what could have happened in the summer of 1967 if the Arabs and the Russians behind them had won this war to understand how vitally important Israel’s existence is for America and for the West as a whole.
I have a presentiment that does not leave me: what will happen to Israel will happen to all of us.
If Israel dies, then a catastrophe awaits us.
Israel must live!
Eric Hoffer- recognized in the USA as a classic of social science, shining example American phenomenon self-made man.
Hoffer was born on July 25, 1902 in the New York suburb of the Bronx into a family of German immigrants. When he was seven years old, his mother suddenly died, and the boy was left in the care of a governess. That same year he became blind for no apparent reason. The blind boy was not even accepted into primary school. He spent eight long years of his childhood in pitch darkness.
At the age of fifteen, again under unclear circumstances, his vision returned to him. Doctors could not explain this change and warned Eric that he could go blind again at any minute. Driven by desperation, Hoffer began to read everything he could get his hands on, using every moment to try to cram in as many words and knowledge as possible before darkness fell again.
That same year, the father fell ill, and the family began a steady slide into poverty. The boy had to find a job so that he and his father would not die of hunger. There was not much choice: a fifteen-year-old boy without primary education could only count on the dirtiest and lowest-paid jobs. Now he had no time for school.
Here's what Hoffer himself says about his youth:
“I never went to school. Until the age of fifteen he was almost blind. When my vision returned, I was overcome by an insatiable hunger for the written word. I read everything indiscriminately - everything that came across in English and German... After my father's death, I realized that I would have to take care of myself. I already definitely knew a few things: first, that I didn't want to work in a factory; secondly, that I cannot stand being dependent on the favor of some superior; thirdly, that I will always be poor; fourthly, that I need to leave New York. Logic dictated that the best place for the poor is California.”
Hoffer never received a formal education. He never spent a single day at school or university. He acquired all the knowledge on his own, from books that he constantly carried with him. Hoffer spent the time when his peers were in school in blindness and loneliness. In those years, when his peers were studying at colleges and universities, the young farm laborer performed the hardest work: a loader at the port, a dishwasher in cafes and restaurants, a woodcutter, a railway handyman.
Wherever he was, he always had a book in his pocket. Hoffer later recalled that he chose his first books solely by size, thickness and font size: only small books fit into his pockets. The ideal option for him was a thick, small book with small print. The first book that fully satisfied these criteria was a collection of essays by Montaigne.
In 1920, when Eric was eighteen years old, his father died. There was nothing keeping him in New York anymore. Alone, without money, education and any social prospects, he decided to move to the southwest, to California, where it was easier to live without money. “After my father’s death,” he later recalled, “I realized that I would have to take care of myself. I already definitely knew a few things: first, that I didn't want to work in a factory; secondly, that I cannot stand being dependent on the favor of some superior; thirdly, that I will always be poor; fourthly, that I need to leave New York. Logic dictated that the best place for the poor is California.”
He spent the next twenty years on the road, homeless, wandering around California, moving from one seasonal job to another. All this time he did not stop reading books that he borrowed from libraries.
Until 1941, he continued to lead a nomadic life, moving from place to place in search of work to “sustain his life.” With the onset of war, he tried to enlist in the army, but failed the medical examination. Then he joined the longshoremen's union, and worked at the port for the next twenty-five years, until 1967. Several days a week he performed the most difficult physical work in the port, and devoted the rest of his time to reading. Gradually, he began to write down his thoughts, which began to take shape in a future book.
His first - and most significant - book was published in 1951. It was called "True Believer". This work was completely different from all the books of that time. She completely ignored all the fashionable trends of that time, especially Freudianism, which then completely absorbed all of American psychological science. Eschewing the academic establishment, Hoffer has written a wholly original book, full of smart, vivid, and surprisingly succinct thoughts on the nature of power, social movements, and the inner lives of people.
Fifty years later, Hoffer's first book appeared in Russian. Its weight and importance have only increased over time. Written just a few years after the end of the Second World War, at a time when dreams of universal peace and brotherhood were giving way to the bitter reality of a new round of military confrontation and the hopelessness of the Cold War between two superpowers, Hoffer's work is still radical for the gray majority, and his statements are so are sharp and unpleasant to the ear of the average person. And there are still more thoughts there than words.
Until now, the scientific world and the “general public” do not know what to do with Hoffer. He is labeled as a “modern Machiavelli” and an eccentric. Twenty years after his death and fifty years after the first edition of The True Believer, the name of Eric Hoffer is still little known, especially to the Russian-speaking reader.
The book “The True Believer” is a piercing look at human society from the outside. Such a clear description of the nature of people could only be given by an outsider who has never found his place in modern society.
Even after becoming a professor emeritus at the University of Berkeley, Hoffer gave lectures in work clothes and appeared at meetings of the academic council after hard physical work in the port. He lived his whole life alone, but he was never burdened by it. He said that true melancholy and loneliness lie in the inability to be alone with oneself and think for oneself.
In 1982, President Reagan presented Eric Hoffer with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest government honor a civilian can receive in the United States.
