Some thoughts on hope, fantasy, and obsession
For your consideration…
From Eric Hoffer’s book The True Believer - Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements:
“Extravagant hope, even when not backed by actual power, is likely to generate a most reckless daring. For the hopeful can draw strength from the most ridiculous sources of power - a slogan, a word, a button.”
“When hopes and dreams are loose in the streets, it is well for the timid to lock doors, shutter windows and lie low untii the wrath has passed. For there is often a monstrous incongruity between the hopes, however noble and tender, and the action which follows them.”
And from Gustave Le Bon’s book The Crowd - A Study of the Popular Mind:
“The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduce them. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.”
Finally, for those who wonder why messengers of hope are so adamant against the critical examination of their message, here is Jean Baudrillard from his book Seduction:
“Here lies something of the secret of magic. The power of words, their ‘symbolic efficacy’ is greater when uttered in a void.”
Do not question the prophets, pushers and proponents of hope. To do so threatens to destroy the void that makes their magic possible.
Posted on Friday, February 22, 2008 at 09:29 AM
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