The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

Men of words—writers and speakers—prepare the way for mass movements by undermining the credibility of the established order. These men of words hail from different professions, but as a group they are often characterized by vanity and a strong desire for recognition of their intellectual talents.

Agents of the established order, if they are wise, forestall mass movements by seeking out men of words, flattering them, and thereby ensuring literate support for the status quo. Hoffer cites a number of historical examples, including Imperial China, which survived for centuries “due to an intimate alliance between the bureaucracy and the literati” (135). Elsewhere, as in 18th-century France, intellectuals felt estranged from the regime and helped foment revolution.

For all their vanity, however, the men of words who succeed in laying the foundation for mass movements are often sincere in their desire to replace corrupt or tyrannical regimes with honest and enlightened ones. When they discover that they have helped spark movements filled with fanatical true believers, these men of words often sink deeper into disillusionment.

In the life cycle of a mass movement, the fanatics ascend as the men of words decline. Fanatics emerge first from inside the ranks of the literate.