Voting is over for 2020. The resolution of the political scene is now up to the legal system. My hope for the future is that our political system can actually remain separate from individual’s belief systems.
Eric Hoffer’s book the True Believer argues that the dynamics of mass movements are consistent regardless of the surface details. Mass movements are united by hatred. Their leader cannot be questioned and the enemy is demonized.
They require ‘men of words’ to come up with a doctrine of dissatisfaction with the status quo because of their own deep personal grievances. We would now call Hoffer’s ‘fanatics’ that preach that doctrine to others those who suffer from dark-traits personality disorders or Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy.
The newly poor are the most likely to embrace the doctrines of dissatifaction because they blame others for their return to poverty. Mass movements that succeed in causing radical change often exceed in brutality those they opposed because their strength comes from denying the individual. When ‘men of action’ desiring influence and fame instead of poverty take over the movement they recognize that their personal power depends on maintaining the other’s perpetual state of dissatisfaction.
For a mass movement to result in positive change for the whole community, ‘men of words’ have to come with a doctrine that honors the indivudual, with an economical model that meets people’s hierarchy of needs, from the physical to the less tangible And the men of action must be those rare leaders who do not hesitate to harness man’s hungers and fears in service of constructive change; but who ‘are not tempted to use the slime of frustrated souls as mortar in the building of a new world‘
To transition to a healthy community and political body, social changes must inspire apostasy among the ‘True Believers’. Having been demonized by both extremes I can assure readers that includes the ‘radical left’ as well as the ‘far-right. The dictionary definition of aspostasy is:
1:an act of refusing to continue to follow, obey, or recognize a belief system
2 : abandonment of a previous loyalty
So here is to a future where individual needs are met and people are willing to think for themselves. That is when ‘the slime of frustrated souls’ can be seen for what it is. Since FBI Surveillance Van #157 shows up on my wifi interfering with my connectivity more and more sporadically, I am hoping they are focusing their resources on that slime instead of me.
sara annon 