As Readers of this Blog know, this Blogger considers Eric Hoffer one of the great men of the 20th Century. Hoffer saw himself as a FREMEN from the novel DUNE, a hunter for signs of worms; in his case, worms in a society which foretold its future. He was always looking for the anomaly in the society which was not a one off, but a precursor.
On July 17, 2010, this Blogger published an paean to Eric Hoffer; the following is excerpted from that Blog.
“Eric Hoffer was one of the great men of the 20th Century, a blind man who became able to see- literally, a migrant worker, a survivor of a suicide attempt, a stevedore, an essayist, a genius, a man who spent his time drifting or in a library or in a bordello.
President Reagan awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983, no one has deserved it more.
He wrote a wonderfully insightful tome, THE TRUE BELIEVER, which stated that there was basically no difference between a Nazi and a Communist; the real difference in the world, the only difference in the world, is between a man of democracy and a man of dictatorship, between a man of the vote and a man of the bullet.
THE TRUE BELIEVER is one of the politically seminal books of the 20th Century, along with 1984,ANIMAL FARM, BRAVE NEW WORLD, and DEFINING DEVIANCY DOWN. Hoffer ranks with Orwell, Huxley,and Moynihan as a thinker who understands the thought patterns and the human foibles within political constructs.
Hoffer was a wunderkind, the son of immigrants. By the age of five, he could read in both German and English. Reading was his passion.
When he was five, his mother fell down a flight of stairs, with him in her arms. She never recovered, and died two years later; Hoffer was traumatized, and went blind. No doctor could figure out why he was struck blind.
Reader, please imagine Hoffer, 15 years old, blind, in total darkness, not able to read, mother dead, father withdrawn.
Imagine if you will, this teenager, walking down a New York street, in total darkness, with a cane, doomed to a life of total darkness, unable to read.
Walking down the street, turning a corner, where, as he turned that corner, "HIS EYESIGHT INEXPLICABLY RETURNED.'
One minute Hoffer was walking down the street, seeing nothing, then he turned a corner and without warning, he could see everything.
" Fearing he would again go blind, he seized upon the opportunity to read as much as he could for as long as he could. His eyesight remained, and Hoffer never abandoned his habit of voracious reading."
Hoffer was a young man when his father died. The cabinetmaker's union aid for the funeral and gave Hoffer a little over three hundred dollars. Hoffer then took a bus to Los Angeles in 1920. He spent the next 10 years on Los Angeles' skid row, reading, occasionally writing, and working odd jobs.
In 1931, he attempted suicide by drinking a solution of oxalic acid, but the attempt failed as he could not bring himself to swallow the poison. The experience gave him a new determination to live adventurously. It was then he left skid row and became a migrant worker. Following the harvests along the length of California, he collected library cards for each town near the fields where he worked and, living by preference, "between the books and the brothels". …
While living, as a graduate student, in San Francisco, I got a chance to meet the Old Lion, before a trip to the Soviet Union. When I returned from the Soviet Union, I and the Old Lion had an eight hour marathon debriefing; he was always looking for that worm sign.………Gerry Maxey, June 2010.”
Hoffer had been a hero to Liberals at the beginning of his career, the earthy stevedore-philosopher. Then,in the early 1960s, France, Britain and Belgium freed a ton of African colonies. Liberals were delighted.
A grand tour of the newly independent nations was arranged for the America Media, CBS sent Eric Sevareid and Eric Hoffer.
The newly independent African nations gave the Liberal Media wonderful excursions, in the new capitals, among the newly finished buildings. The American Liberal Media was euphoric, except for Hoffer.
He went on national television and said to Sevareid, that the newly independent African nations were in for a tough slough and probably would fail.
Sevareid was aghast; he asked Hoffer: "How can you say that?"
Hoffer replied:" As everyone was touring the building, me, the old stevedore was checking the janitor's closets....in not one country, not in one janitor's room did I find a mop, or a broom or cleanser. How can you advance if you cannot maintain?"
Hoffer told this Blogger that insight was the pregnant insight, the detail that defined destiny. It was like finding the thorn in the general's horse's hoof that would lead the horse to stumble, killing the general, thereby losing the battle.
The Liberal Elite, the Liberal Media NEVER forgave Hoffer for his insight; they called him an ignorant racist.
Hoffer was called a racist because he had been right; no African nation has lived up to its 1960 potential, except in over populating and immigrating to societies which value maintenance.
Using the Hoffer Methodology, this Blogger was struck by two anomalies which may instead be precursors of worms in two societies.
GERMANY-
The 20th Century was spoiled by two unhinged leaders of Germany, the Prussian Kaiser Wilhelm, and the Austrian, Adolf Hitler. The 21st Century has been spoiled by a third German unhinged German leader, the Mad Mutti, Angela Merkel.
Her 2015 decision to allow over one million Sunni migrants into Western Europe will be revealed, in future hindsight, equivalent to the assassination of Franz Ferdinand as a casus belli for wars across Western Civilization, between natives and migrants, Nationalists and Globalists. Her demented action of compassion was the birth of Frankenstein, and caused BREXIT and the rise of Donald Trump; for she memorialized the feeling that the Global Elite care more about exotic foreigners than natives.
On October 21, 2015, this Blogger published this : Migrants, Refugees and Illegal Aliens Cause "Rechtsrutsch" in America….
:” All across Europe, nations are sitting on powder kegs, dangers not seen in European history since August, 1914 or September, 1939… The natural consequence of a massive, unending influx of illegal aliens, migrants and refugees is violence. Any nation which cannot control its borders risks a rising of its native born citizens….THE MAXEY CHRONICLES.”
Something disturbing is happening in Germany, because of Merkel’s demented compassion-
“Former three-star general Joachim Wundrak is running for mayor of Hanover for Alternative for Germany (AfD) after expressing contempt for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open border policies.
Wundrak, a former member of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, has accused the German leader of facilitating mass migration, which he has labelled an “anti-German” policy, Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung reports.
In an interview with the paper, Wundrak said that he chose to leave the CDU in 2017, saying Merkel could not recognise what she could have done differently during the height of the migrant crisis in 2015.
…..Wundrak noted that Merkel’s CDU could lose the confidence of the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, saying: “The AfD is the only party that fully supports the Bundeswehr.”
Is General Wundrak an anomaly, or a precursor to a rebirth of German militarism, with the Bundeswehr turning against a multicultural state, putting multiculturalism to the sword? This Blogger believes Hoffer would believe it to be a precursor, thank you Angela Merkel.
THE UNITED STATES-
This Blogger believes in the Draft, for this Blogger believes in citizen armies.
The Marian Reforms of the Roman Republic turned the citizen army into a professional army; shortly thereafter the Roman republic became a Caesarian dictatorship, a preclude to Empire.
What does it take to have a citizens army? Citizens willing to endure sacrifice, even Death for the Republic.
The United States has won great victories, in great conflicts against formidable foes with a citizen army; not so much with a professional army.
America could win those great victories because America had tough minded citizens, from Audie Murphy to J.D. Salinger to Jimmy Stewart.
There is a Hoffer anomaly happening in Oregon, which may be a precursor; a precursor to a fact that America will never again be able to field a citizen army in dire times, because it no longer has tough minded citizens.
“Depression and anxiety. The state of the country. Climate change. Mass shootings. Today’s students are grappling with a variety of issues beyond the classroom.
To that end, lawmakers …. recently recognized the importance of the mental health of their students by allowing them to take sick days just for that. The measures “empower” children to take care of their mental health, one expert said.
On July 1, a law in Oregon went into effect giving students five mental health days in a three-month period…..(students) blamed their anxiety on politics or climate change.
In Oregon, the bill was supported by several teenagers. One recent graduate, Hailey Hardcastle, said…… that the bill was inspired by politically active students in Parkland, Fla., and that she and her peers wanted to address mental health issues in schools.
Another former student, Derek Evans, voiced his approval. “Dealing with anxiety throughout high school has always left me tired, exhausted up against some weeks, and the difference one day makes is honestly life-changing,”…..NEW YORK TIMES.”
Anxiety over Climate Change? In the 1930s,”The “Dust Bowl,….…. rolling winds churned the dust into massive storms that blotted out the sky… during the early 1930s, without rain, the exposed fertile topsoil turned to dust, and without sod or windbreaks such as trees, rolling winds churned the dust into massive storms that blotted out the sky, choked settlers and livestock, and rained dirt not only across the region but as far east as Washington, D.C., New England, and ships on the Atlantic Ocean.”
Those 1930 kids endured Climate Change, without mental health days. They did not kill themselves; instead they rose up and defeated the Nazi war machine; and sired a generation which defeated the Soviets.
This Blogger has a justified Hofferian fear that if this Republic ever needed a citizen army to storm the beaches of Normandy again, another D-DAY, the soldiers raised in the Oregon school system would ask for a mental day off; landing on a beach in front of a war machine is stressful.
In the old days, when this Republic bestrode the world because of its citizen soldiers; it did not matter if the citizen soldier was mentally ill. All that mattered was whether he could take a bullet for the Republic, which may have been meant for a sane American.
The historical determinism of the 21st Century, a zero sum world, will force America back into its ruthless ways in order to survive, Oregon mental days notwithstanding.
Eric Hoffer would understand; History is tough, and it takes a breed of tough survivors to survive it. Oregon is not doing the future of America any favors by denying historical reality to the children in its care.
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