July 25 marks the 1902 birth of Eric Hoffer, known as the “longshoreman philosopher” for the manual labor he performed for most of his life. In eleven books, beginning with The True Believer, the Presidential Medal of Freedom winner focused on the allure of a seemingly ennobling collective cause, and the often tyrannically employed coercive power that goes with it, to those who are discontented, particularly intellectuals. He also focused on fulfilled, creative individuals, who can only flourish under freedom. Given the accelerating encroachment of collectivist government policies into Americans’ already-adulterated freedoms, his insights into freedom merit renewed attention:
“The aspiration toward freedom is the most essentially human of all human manifestations.”
“Freedom means freedom from forces and circumstances which would turn man into a thing…”
“The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do.”
“The real ‘haves’ are they who can acquire freedom, self-confidence, and even riches without depriving others of them. They acquire all of these by developing and applying their potentialities. On the other hand, the real ‘have nots’ are they who cannot have aught except by depriving others of it…[who] feel free only by diminishing the freedom of others…”
“People unfit for freedom — who cannot do much with it — are hungry for power. The desire for freedom…says: leave me alone and I shall grow, learn, and realize my capacities.”
“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.”
“Nothing so offends the doctrinaire individual as our ability to achieve the momentous in a matter-of-fact way, unblessed by words.”
“[T]he intellectual…derives his sense of usefulness mainly from directing, instructing, and planning — from minding other people’s business — and is bound to feel superfluous and neglected where people believe themselves competent to manage individual and communal affairs, and are impatient of supervision and regulation. A free society is…a threat to the intellectual’s sense of worth…Any social order that can function with a minimum of leadership will be anathema to the intellectual.”
“The ability to get along without an exceptional leader is the mark of social vigor.”
“[M]en of power…their main purpose is the elimination or neutralization of the independent individual…every device they employ aims at turning men into a manipulable ‘animated instrument’ which is Aristotle’s definition of a slave.”
“The taint inherent in absolute power is not its inhumanity but its anti-humanity. “
“[A]bsolute power is the manifestation most inimical to human uniqueness.”
“All leaders strive to turn their followers into children.”
“Absolute power corrupts even when exercised for humane purposes. The benevolent despot who sees himself as a shepherd of the people still demands from others the submissiveness of sheep.”
“We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.”
“The danger inherent in reform is that the cure may be worse than the disease…reformers are not on guard against unpredictable side effects which may divert the course of reform toward unwanted results. Moreover, quite often the social doctors become part of the disease.”
The collectivist mindset that Eric Hoffer so cogently analyzed is increasingly being echoed today, presenting another threat to freedom. But no amount of power to coerce others can make a life meaningful for good. As Hoffer realized, only freedom can provide that opportunity. It does not guarantee a meaningful life; only the possibility. But to create or preserve that possibility, we need to bolster freedom. As he recognized, “Every device employed to bolster individual freedom must have as its chief purpose the impairment of the absoluteness of power…[or] the defeated individual, however strong and resourceful, can have no refuge and no recourse.”
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The problem with the way he wrote those sayings is that it tends to provide support to the statist agenda.
“Freedom means freedom from forces and circumstances which would turn man into a thing…”
This one in particular stands out as it is a common excuse for things like welfare payments and government medical control. Statists like to argue that using the State is a means to free people from their circumstances.
When you take history in high school or college you hear about “The decline and fall of Greece” or “The decline and fall of Rome.” If you ever wondered what it’s like to be alive during one of those declines, look around. This is it. The breakup of a once great civilization is happening right now.
If the foundation of these “civilizations” was military empire, centrally-manipulated economies and burdensome bureaucracy then long may they fall!
Heartily agreed!
Nicholas, how does one define civilization? If anything, individually and on a whole, any problems we have are only set backs. Peaceful, cooperative trade and creativity remain in greater abundance than ever before. I might say that if the “state” is so large, it is that way because it has an even larger market to feed on. There will be a point where things become too burdensome, but no one knows for sure how things will come about.
A great error is to think yourself powerless.
Speaking of civilisation and the rise and fall of nations, there is a neat measure of th eprogress made by any nation: the society’s ratio of engineers per lawyer. When engineers outnumber lawyers, the nation is on the rise , and when the lawyers outnumber the engineers, its in decline ( on the simple grounds that its focus has passed from building , to arguing about who has the best claim to that which is already built).
Of course, speaking as one of English extraction, ( and with tongue firmly in cheek) I might observe that this does not really account for the unique case of a nation which goes from growth to decline without the usual intervening phase of civilisation.
Here’s an interesting thought to contrast with engineer per lawyer ratio, the US is run by lawyers, while China (from what I’ve heard) has engineers running things.
Hey, buddy, how about a credit for Oscar Wilde there?
I find most engineers to be about as bad as lawyers. There is a similar desire and simplicity many of them seem to share. The lawyers who have become our masters are pretty much engineers of men’s lives.
These are some great quotes, but I thought Hoffer had some socialistic leanings? Didn’t he support national service (slavery) program?
His “The True Believer” was the best analysis of group behavior I have read. It well applies to Libertarians.
Some of those quotes are words to live by. The one with the true “haves” and “have-nots” is what truly caught my attention. Freedom is the aim every man, woman, and child should make. Free will and self-reliance are two great freedoms people need to take advantage of.
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