What makes a fanatic? To many today, this is less a question than an assumption. “They’re just crazy,” practical people are apt to say—particularly when observing the behaviors of their political enemies.
However, 70 years ago, a German immigrant sought to explain fanaticism by analyzing the common characteristics of people prone to joining radical political causes. While this is what Eric Hoffer is best remembered for today, his later, less well-known work further developed his social concerns and elaborated on antidotes to conformity. This wisdom hasn’t been assimilated like his early thoughts on mass movements have, although it’s arguably just as important.
The True Believer
Hoffer’s early life has never been independently verified. He said he was born in 1902 in New York City but had no birth certificate to prove it. He spoke with a thick Bavarian accent all his life, though his parents supposedly came from Alsace-Lorraine, where accents are a mix of French and light German. There are no records of Hoffer’s parents. At age 7, he mysteriously went blind, then eight years later recovered his sight. He never attended school but often haunted libraries. In 1920 he set out for California, spending 20 years doing odd jobs—orange salesman, dishwasher, migrant worker, gold prospector—before settling in San Francisco after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
