The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

Eric Hoffer's The True Believer takes a deeply authoritarian and cynical view of human nature, but it is hard not to argue that it is at least partially correct. “The quality of ideas seems to play a minor role in mass movement leadership. What counts is the arrogant gesture, the complete disregard of the opinion of others, the single-handed defiance of the world.”