Posted on 03/03/2006 1:54:45 PM PST by Kitten Festival
As the scent of burning electrical wire and the pulverized dust settled over Manhattan in the wake of the 2001 World Trade Center attack, a certain book disappeared from New York City bookstore shelves.
Within a week, that book rocketed from No. 8,000 to No. 125 on Amazon.com rankings. It described the nature of fanatics, offering a powerful window of understanding into the people capable of blowing up those two towers.
"The True Believer" was published in 1951. Its author, Eric Hoffer, was a self-educated longshoreman born in New York City to a German cabinetmaker and his wife. His keen observations helped him become one of the greatest American philosophers.
He wrote 11 terse, thoughtful interpretations of behavior for fanatics, misfits, intellectuals and practical men of action. His work was so powerful that he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Ronald Reagan in 1982.
"You need only read one of his classics like 'The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements' to realize that you are seeing the work of an intellectual giant," wrote economist Thomas Sowell in a 2003 essay about Hoffer.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
I've read the book (The True Believer) a couple times. Very thought-provoking.
Time for this term and VRWC and other rhetoric to besmirch Christians and Conservatives.
Today is March 3, 2006--the date you were clued into the future.
Unless you are reading this on the other side of the International Date Line. You guys already know all about the future.
*Waving hi* to Kitten. I haven't reread it in decades.
I wouldn't apply "True Believer" as Hoffer used it to Christians and Conservatives.
I hadn't realized that there was a book about you. congrats.
I often recommend "The True Believer". It helps explain a lot about the workings of the fanatic mind. Very appropriate for today's world.
You've never read Parashat Pinechas, have you?
I was born on Shabbat Pinechas!
...huh?!?
He explains that difference in his book. He says that they are alike in taxonomy, but different in content and effect. He compared leftist and islamofascist freak fanatics to deadly nightshade that will poison you, and good committe Christians to ripe delicious tomatoes that will nourish you. The plants are in the same family but have different effects on human beings.
It's been over thirty years since I read it. Thank you very much for your informative post..
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