Hi Francois! I just spent the day reading," The True Believer ".Eric Hoffer wrote this book in 1951. I wish I had read it back in 1969! Thanks for recommending it.I shared some points from it with a friend over the phone and he nows wants to read it too! You know how it is when you like certain points in a book you are reading,well, I practically underlined the whole book because all the chapters and titles were engrossing to me.I'm going to buy some of his other books to read also, thanks again. Blueblades.
The True Believer /Francois.
by Blueblades 10 Replies latest jw friends
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refiners fire
Yes theres some interesting stuff in the book. I liked the progression/ stages of a mass movement as espoused by Hoffer:
Commenced by a "man of words", brought into existance by a "fanatic" , developed into a machine system by the "practical man of action". Eventually the movement, if it continues, goes thru these phases and goes eventually into "stagnation/ pertrification" and gerontocracy. The rule of fossilized old men.
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Blueblades
Hi Refiner!, Also the" Seven Unifying Agents" 1.Hatred,2.Imitation,3.Persuasion and Coercian,4.Leardership,5.Action,6.Suspicion,and 7.The Effects of Unification.All very powerful information.
Mass movements make extensive use of "Suspicion" in their machinery.There is prying and spying, tense watching and a tense awareness of being watched. There is much more, I'll leave that for another time.Blueblades
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refiners fire
I love this, speaking about the character traits of the leader of the second phase of the movement. The active or "expansionist " phase:
..."The fanatic who personifies this phase is usually an unattractive human type. He is Ruthless, self righteous, credulous, disputatious, petty and rude. He is often ready to sacrifice friends for the holy cause".... page 153.
Hows this, phase 3, The "Practical man", the "consolidating" leader:
..." With the appearance of the practical man of action the active phase of the movement is over, .....the final phase is chiefly occupied with administering and perpetuating the power won.....the movement is enbalmed, sealed in sanctified institutions, The institutions freeze a pattern of unified action.... The members are expected to act as one man"...
Edited by - refiners fire on 22 December 2002 1:23:11
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Gizmo
retracted
Edited by - elderrepents on 22 December 2002 1:41:16
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Blueblades
Unifying Agents:1.Hatred";Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all unifying agents.Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God,but never without belief in a devil.Usually the strength of a mass movement is proportionate to the vividness and tangibility of its devil.It is perhaps true that the insight and shrewdness of the men who know how to set a movement in motion,or how to keep one going,manifest themselves as much in knowing how to pick a worthy enemy as in knowing what doctrine to embrace what program to adopt."
WT.Society has taught Hatred,and has picked as their #1.ENEMY:Those who have disagreed with their teachings and policies labeling them as like : SATAN,independent,faultfinding,stubborn,reviling,haughty,lawless,and APOSTATES.wt.8/15/1981,pages 28 and 29.
In the minds of the rank and file including C.O.'s and Elders,this has been considered enough to categorize them and to deal with them accordingly.
So,Unifying Agent#1.Hatred picking a devil i.e.Apostates along with the Internet.Blueblades
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Blueblades
Continuing to share points from the book,"The True Believer",by Eric Hoffer:Written over 51 yrs. ago.
Factors Promoting Self-sacrifice:"There are many listed ,let me share the one on Doctrine:The effectiveness of a doctrine does not come from its meaning but from its certitude.No doctrine however profound and sublime will be effective unless it is presented as the embodiment of the one and only truth.Crude absurdities,trivial nonsense and sublime truths are equally potent in readying people for self-sacrifice.In order to be effective a doctrine must not be understood;but has rather to be believed in."
"The devote are always urged to seek the absolute truth with their hearts not their minds.The readiness for self-sacrifice is contingent on an imperviousness to the realities of life.He who is free to draw conclusions from his individual experience and the observation is not usually hospital to the idea of martydom.To rely on the evidence of the senses and of reason is heresy and treason.It is starting to realize how mich unbelief is necessary to make belief possible.What we know as blind faith is sustained by innumerable unbeliefs."
"It is the true believer's ability to "shut his eyes and stop his ears"to facts that do not deserve to be either seen or heard which is the source of his unequaled fortitude and constancy.He cannot be frightened by danger nor disheartened by obstacles nor baffled by contradictions because he denies their existence.And it is the certitude of his infallible doctrine that renders the true believer impervious to the uncertainties,surprises and the unpleasant realities of the world around him.One has to get to heaven or the distant future to determine the truth of an effective doctrine."
My thought:Many of us have come from the past to the distance future and have seen the Society change many of its effective doctrines,you know the list,certain effective doctrines are no longer effective.How do they get around this?Eric hoffer put it this way:"When some part of a doctrine is relatively simple,there is a tendency among the faithful to complicate and obscure it.Simple words are made pregnant with meaning and made to look like symbols in a secret message.There is thus an illiterate air about the most literate true believer.He seems to use words as if he were ignorant of their true meaning.Hence,too,his taste for quibbling,hair-splitting and scholastic tortuousnes."Blueblades
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acsot
bttt
I just bought the book captioned in the subject and have read your posts on it - can't wait to start readng it.
Is this what Scott Peck calls synchronicity or serendipity? I was looking for something else and this book practically fell in my hands. Hmmm ..........
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Francois
I missed this thread when you guys first put it up. I was moving at the time.
But I'm just tickled to death you're reading it. Really is enlightening, isn't it?
francois
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Mulan
I was so angry with my husband when he read that book. I didn't believe him when he said it didn't mention JW's. He told me many things about it as he read it, and I just couldn't believe it wasn't talking about witnesses.
I was so dumb.