Eric Hoffer, The True Believer, p. 161: "In the eyes of the true believer, people who have no holy cause are without backbone and character -- a pushover for men of faith."
The True Believer was published in 1951. I read chunks of it in the '60s and returned to it in December of 2003. Hoffer had Osama bin Laden and his fatal mistake pegged fifty years before the events of 9/11/01. The prescience of this autodidactic stevedore is truly remarkable. Has there ever been a more independent independent scholar?
He who proselytizes in the cause of unbelief is basically a man in need of belief. (p. 34)
It almost seems that nobody can hate America as much as native Americans. America needs new immigrants to love and cherish it. (p. 34)
Hoffer uses 'native Americans' above correctly as opposed to in the PeeCee manner. You may enjoy my Proof that I am a Native American. The first quotation applies quite presciently to the New Atheists.
Sorry to offend my European readers, but it must be said:
We are told that the paradise of the masses in America is a 'pig heaven.' Granted; but the Europe the masses left behind was a pigsty. (p. 32)
I'd quote more but another library patron has recalled the book from which I am quoting. The audacity of the fellow!
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