Military Review English Edition January-February 2017 | Page 128
REVIEW ESSAY
The True
Believer
Thoughts on the Nature
of Mass Movements
Eric Hoffer, Harper Perennial,
New York, 2010, 192 pages
Lt. Col. Benjamin Buchholz, U.S. Army
M
any theories attempt to define and offer
solutions for dealing with the brand of
radical Islam that fuels Middle Eastern
movements such as Daesh.1 Other attempts have been
made to demonstrate that radical Islam is not Islam at
all, except in the most superficial or perverted manner.
The constant claim in those scenarios is that Islamist
ideology not only misrepresents Islam, but it can also
be viewed as “a virulent vision all its own, one that its
adherents have created by plucking selections from
centuries of traditions.”2 However, this argument rarely
extends far enough to give the “virulent vision” a name
other than radical, or fundamental Islam, let alone suggest remedies.3 Common to both of these approaches
is the base assumption that the problem of Daesh and
al-Qaida should be defined in Islamic terms. An alternative methodology, one that applies the sociology of
mass movements rather than the prejudices of religion,
removes ipso facto the contentiousness of religious debate and provides insights into—and new methods for
countering—these movements’ appeal.4
As such, Eric Hoffer’s study in The True Believer:
Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements not only
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provides a roadmap for analyzing radical Islam as
something other than religious heterodoxy but also
offers solutions that suggest new approaches to dealing
with the many, apparently intractable issues radical
Islam presents.5 The work is broken into four main
parts, though two apply most practically to the mass
movement of radical Islam: a discussion of why mass
movements have appeal and an analysis of the traits
most likely to produce converts to a mass movement.6
The Appeal of Mass Movements
Two points that apply directly to the rise of Daesh as
a mass movement appear in the beginning of The True
Believer. First, Hoffer states,
The contribution of the Western democracies to the awakening of the East has been
indirect and certainly unintended. They have
kindled an enthusiasm of resentment against
the West; and it is this anti-Western fervor
which is at present rousing the Orient from
its stagnation of centuries.7
Second, instead of merely blaming discontent for the
rise of mass movements, Hoffer digs deeper. He situates
January-February 2017 MILITARY REVIEW