patrick.net

"The True Believer" by Eric Hoffer is more excellent than I realized when I first read it in 1990. It explains SJW's, Trump supporters, wacko Muslims, and much else clearly and coherently. It's short and well-written and chock full of quotes with great explanatory power.

I stumbled upon unspeakable embarrassment as perhaps the prime driving force of politics, but Hoffer knew it was true back in 1951. Maybe I really just remembered having read his book. The preface quote is a pretty good summary:

Man would fain be great and sees that he is little; would fain be happy and sees that he is miserable; would fain be perfect and sees that he is full of imperfections; would fain be the object of the love and esteem of men, and sees that his faults merit only their aversion and contempt. The embarrassment wherein he finds himself produces in him the most unjust and criminal passions imaginable, for he conceives a mortal hatred against that truth which blames him and convinces him of his faults.

– Blaise Pascal, Pensees