Eric Hoffer, the California philosopher, was a working man.
Eric Hoffer was a bum, almost literally. The popular blue-collar philosopher of the last century was a California ag worker who migrated from farm to farm, spending some time in a camp for unemployed transients before landing a permanent gig as a San Francisco longshoreman.
He came away impressed by the endurance of his fellow tramps and drifters, the most adaptable of whom honed their character into pioneer stock. In a published book of essays, The Ordeal of Change, Hoffer observed, “There is in us a tendency to judge a race, a nation, or an organization by its least worthy members. The tendency is manifestly perverse and unfair; yet it has some justification. For the quality and destiny of a nation are determined to a considerable extent by the nature and potentialities of its inferior elements.”
Speaking of America, he continued: “History contrived an earth-shaking joke when it lifted by the nape of the neck lowly peasants, shopkeepers, laborers, paupers, jailbirds, and drunks from the midst of Europe, dumped them on a vast, virgin continent and said, ‘Go to it; it is yours!’ And the lowly were not awed by the magnitude of the task. A hunger for action, pent up for centuries, found an outlet.”
In an even more celebrated volume, The True Believer, Hoffer contrasted such down-and-outers with better-off and mischievously idle people. “There is perhaps no more reliable indicator of a society’s ripeness for a mass movement than the prevalence of unrelieved boredom. In almost all the descriptions of the periods preceding the rise of mass movements, there is reference to vast ennui; and in their earliest stages, mass movements are more likely to find sympathizers and support among the bored than among the exploited and oppressed.”
And so it is today. We watch public debates deteriorate into pogroms and it isn’t the “exploited and oppressed” who exhibit strident intolerance and radical discontent. It’s the privileged and bored factions in society who have rejected rational policy in favor of revolt for revolt’s sake.
One more timeless Hoffer observation, this from a 1967 television interview with journalist Eric Sevareid. “First of all, I ought to tell you that I have no grievance against the intellectual,” Hoffer said in response to a question. “All I know about the intellectual is what I read in history and how I saw them perform in our time. And I’m convinced that the intellectual—as a type, as a group—are more corrupted by power than any other human type.”
Hoffer’s observations remain spot on 40 years after his death, true insight having a long shelf life. Across the U.S., ideologues in our power centers, encrusted with hubris and dismissive of reasonable concerns of laity, are muscling their way through another election year, their campus foot soldiers caterwauling, their media minions enthralled with them as always.
It will be left to America’s “inferior elements” and “least worthy members” to restore some order from the calculated chaos that marks 2024. They may be up to the task.
Giles, I share your admiration of Hoffer and have a signed note from him in response to a fan letter I sent in my teenage years. Regarding your line, "It will be left to America’s “inferior elements” and “least worthy members” to restore some order from the calculated chaos that marks 2024. They may be up to the task." Do you really think the right wing / Trump forces will restore order? Trump is on record as saying, "I love chaos," and many voices on Fox, Newsmax, ON and numerous right-wing websites are pushing the chaos button. In the manner of the 1930s, they are trying to foment fear and loathing to help Trump win / the radical right gain and/or retain power. I suggest you offer a more articulate version of your political views.
Spot on. Always enjoy your essays.