{"id":2799,"date":"2015-12-09T04:48:55","date_gmt":"2015-12-09T09:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=2799"},"modified":"2015-12-09T04:48:55","modified_gmt":"2015-12-09T09:48:55","slug":"the-true-believer-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=2799","title":{"rendered":"The True Believer, II"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What do you know?  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/12\/08\/opinion\/how-isis-makes-radicals.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fdavid-brooks&#038;action=click&#038;contentCollection=opinion&#038;region=stream&#038;module=stream_unit&#038;version=latest&#038;contentPlacement=1&#038;pgtype=collection&#038;_r=0\" target=\"_blank\">David Brooks<\/a> was thinking about Eric Hoffer&#8217;s classic book <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=2796\" target=\"_blank\">yesterday<\/a>, too.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The best source of wisdom on this general subject is still \u201cThe True Believer,\u201d by Eric Hoffer, which he wrote back in 1951.<\/p>\n<p>[ &#8230; ]<\/p>\n<p>Mass movements, he argues, only arise in certain conditions, when <SPAN style=\"BACKGROUND-COLOR: #a8f2f5\">a once sturdy social structure is in a state of decay or disintegration<\/span>. This is a pretty good description of parts of the Arab world.<\/p>\n<p>[ &#8230; ]<\/p>\n<p>Next, <SPAN style=\"BACKGROUND-COLOR: #a8f2f5\">mass movements denigrate the individual self. Everything that is unique about an individual is either criticized, forbidden or diminished<\/span>. The individual\u2019s identity is defined by the collective group identity, and fortified by a cultivated hatred for other groups.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a lot of self-renunciation going on here.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Any Southern Baptist capable of stepping outside him- or herself for a moment will recognize the truth of that second highlighted portion; their sermons are nothing so much as long beratings.  Other groups striving for control keep their members in line the exact same way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What do you know? David Brooks was thinking about Eric Hoffer&#8217;s classic book yesterday, too. The best source of wisdom on this general subject is still \u201cThe True Believer,\u201d by Eric Hoffer, which he wrote back in 1951. [ &#8230; &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=2799\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2799"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2801,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799\/revisions\/2801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}