THE FREE MAN

The Longshoreman Philosopher: Combining the life of a working man with a life of reading and writing, the San Francisco longshoreman Eric Hoffer became a noted philosopher, a best-selling author, and an acute observer of American life. His papers in the Hoover Archives run to many thousands of pages and include journals that have never been published. Tom Bethell examines the Hoffer trove (Tom Bethell, Winter 2003, Hoover Digest)

Hoffer's contact with the publishing world probably began in 1938, when he read an issue of Common Ground, a magazine then seeking to interpret America to immigrants. Hoffer put together his notes in the form of a long letter to the editor, Louis Adamic. In the Hoover Archives there is a 30-page article entitled "Tramps and Pioneers," which is probably the article that Hoffer sent. The reply came from Adamic's assistant, Margaret Anderson, who said they could not publish it. But she forwarded it to an editor at the publishing house Harper & Brothers. The editor there, Eugene Saxon, suggested to Hoffer that he write his autobiography and submit that. But Hoffer said he wasn't interested in personal writing. There his literary career might have ended but for continued encouragement from Margaret Anderson. Eventually he sent the longhand manuscript of The True Believer to her, and she typed it and sent it to Harper & Brothers. (Three holograph drafts of The True Believer are in the Archives.)

One editor at Harper & Brothers, Evan Thomas, the son of Norman Thomas, considered the book "an extremely cynical work" and opposed publication. But another, John Fischer, found it "an important piece of original thinking and I very much hope we can work out a contract." Published in March 1951, the book was dedicated to Margaret Anderson, "without whose goading finger which reached me across a continent, this book would not have been written." Orville Prescott of the New York Times wrote that "Mr. Hoffer flings dogmatic judgments in all directions. . . . He also tosses off maxims and aphorisms with the aplomb of La Rochefoucauld himself.? One such aphorism, cited then and more recently, summarizes the thesis of The True Believer: "Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves." [...]

The early notebooks show that he was at first contemplating a second volume of The True Believer. Of particular interest, in light of subsequent developments, are his reflections on Jews, Arab history, and developments in the Middle East. Hoffer was strongly pro-Israel and was more interested in the Jews and in their influence on history than his published work indicates. Four entries from these notebooks will give the reader a flavor:

* You must read more about early Islam. The Muslim fanaticism was perhaps of a different nature from Christian fanaticism. The conversion to Islam was altogether different from the conversion to Christianity. (1950)

* The Muslim sea of open mouths does not roar hatred but clamors for pride. [In Iran], Mossadegh's defiance of the world is manna and ambrosia to souls starved for pride. (1952)

* The central fact is that the Arabs do not want peace proposals. They don't want concessions. They want Israel destroyed. (1977)

* Sadat's assassination made many things clear. The almost unemotional reaction of the Egyptian masses, so unlike that at the death of Nasser, suggested that the Arabs are affected more deeply by the pride of Arabism cultivated by Nasser than by the Egyptian nationalism and idealism advanced by Sadat. Anti-Israeli policies will have a powerful appeal in the Middle East for the balance of the century. It will be suicidal for the Israelis to believe in the possibility of a deep popular change. (1981)

That The True Believer, though not explicitly addressed to the particular issues we face now, is so helpful in understanding them, makes one wish he'd had time to write that second volume. But, because he was dissecting a mindset more than a given ideology, True Believer remains invaluable. There's even a passage that applies precisely to the current unrest on the American Right:

Free men are aware of the imperfection inherent in human affairs, and they are willing to fight and die for that which is not perfect. They know that basic human problems can have no final solutions, that our freedom, justice, equality, etc. are far from absolute, and that the good life is compounded of half measures, compromises, lesser evils, and gropings toward the perfect. The rejection of approximations and the insistence on absolutes are the manifestation of a nihilism that loathes freedom, tolerance, and equity.

Those conservatives who insist that others adhere to their own rigid ideology or be judged quislings, and who can't tolerate the fact that George Bush's achievements have required compromise, are indeed nihilistic. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 10, 2003 10:03 AM