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.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that individuals struggling with meaning in their lives may seek purpose through causes, sometimes leading to extreme beliefs.
Eric Hofferβs quote highlights the tendency of individuals who feel their lives lack purpose to immerse themselves in causes, which can lead to a duality of devotion towards noble efforts and the harboring of grievances. The 'mass movement' he refers to offers these individuals a community and platform where their struggles can manifest as intense passions, often creating a sense of belonging or identity, albeit through potentially extreme ideology. This raises questions about the nature of purpose, identity, and the psychological needs that drive group dynamics.
In practice
This quote can be used to provoke thought in a discussion about societal movements in a sociology class.
Language was invented to ask questions. Answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions must be spoken. Humanness came of age when man asked the first question. Social stagnation results not from a lack of answers but from the absence of the impulse to ask questions.
Faith in humanity, in posterity, in the destiny of one's religion, nation, race, party or family-what is it but the visualization of that eternal something to which we attach the self that is about to be annihilated?
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.
Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about.
Perhaps a modern society can remain stable only by eliminating adolescence, by giving its young, from the age of ten, the skills, responsibilities, and rewards of grownups, and opportunities for action in all spheres of life. Adolescence should be a time of useful action, while book learning and scholarship should be a preoccupation of adults.
The search for scapegoats is essentially an abnegation of responsibility: it indicates an inability to assess honestly and intelligently the true nature of the problems which lie at the root of social and economic difficulties and a lack of resolve in grappling with them.
There is a close relationship between flowers and convicts. The fragility and delicacy of the former are of the same nature as the brutal insensitivity of the latter.
If I were to remain silent, I'd be guilty of complicity.
The most melancholy of human reflections, perhaps, is that, on the whole, it is a question whether the benevolence of mankind does most good or harm.
When none but the wealthy had watches, they were almost all very good ones; few are now made which are worth much, but everybody has one in his pocket.
Perhaps, after all, America never has been discovered. I myself would say that it had merely been detected.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.