The facts on which the true believer bases his conclusions must not be derived from his experience or observation but from holy writ. . . .To rely on evidence of the senses and of reason is heresy and treason. It is startling to realize how much unbelief is necessary to make belief possible. What we know as blind faith is sustained by innumerable unbeliefs. The fanatical Japanese in Brazil refused to believe for years the evidence of Japan’s defeat. The fanatical Communist refuses to believe any unfavorable report or evidence about Russia, nor will he be disillusioned by seeing with his own eyes the cruel misery inside the Soviet promised land.
It is the true believer’s ability to “shut his eyes and stop his ears” to facts that do not deserve to be either seen or heard which is the source of his unequaled fortitude and constancy. He cannot be frightened by danger nor disheartened by obstacles nor baffled by contradictions because he denies their existence. Strength of faith . . . manifests itself not in moving mountains but in not seeing mountains to move. And it is the certitude of his infallible doctrine that renders the true believer impervious to the uncertainties, surprises and the unpleasant realities of the world around him.
Thus the effectiveness of a doctrine should not be judged by its profundity, sublimity or the validity of the truths it embodies, but by how thoroughly it insulates the individual from his self and the world as it is.
Eric Hoffer, The True Believer
Over half of Americans practice to some degree belief structures in economics and politics built on certitude. These beliefs manifest in self-fulfilling prophecies, militancy, tyrannies of identity groups, mob actions, and one-party rule. Their immunity from non believers comes from upholding truths that are not observable through objective experience, and an absolute certainty that they are correct.
Meanwhile a shrinking minority of Americans connected to observation and experience go about trying to talk sense to the majority of true believers, perhaps unaware they’re dealing with people ensconced comfortably inside an impermeable cocoon built on certainty of their own subjective truth. If a true believer can somehow overcome his fear of uncertain reality and an uncertain future, he’ll still have hard work ahead to discover and comprehend the crushing detail of modern reality.
How daunting this must be for leftists and environmentalists who have only known the certainty of belief all their lives, who have only been friends with other people who share that same certainty and loyalty to the agenda.
Free market individualists, unburdened by an overhead of subjective belief, with only unvarnished history to guide them, come along to happily share simple proven principles with the true believers. In return they get shouted down, they get accused of horrible intentions, they get maligned and impugned for completely unreal things they have no connection to.
Set back on their heals, they shake their heads in wonder about what they could have possibly said to engender such viciousness. Most free marketers probably aren’t aware that the true believers never even heard, or comprehended, what was said.
Merely speaking to them, as a non-believer–an “other,” is enough to trigger their defense systems. Words coming in that might not uphold the certitude of their true belief must be put down ruthlessly before they can be absorbed. That is the discipline of true belief and it must be preserved. The alternative is an uncertain emptiness of reality without structure, beyond belief, difficult to understand, perhaps even pleasantly surprising, but too overwhelming to imagine.
Will reality-based people succeed in breaking through the hard shells maintained by the true believers? Will more true believers continue to turn violent against reality-based people? There seems to be no end in sight to this conflict.
Though they will never admit it, true believers are clearly caught up in ideation reinforcement mechanisms that manipulate and subjugate them. Conservative realists must find a way to set them free.
B_Imperial