Reflections on the Human Condition
Lynch, Frederick R.
R iew Reflections on the Human Condition by Eric Hoffer Harper & Row $4.95 Every so often men of considerable intellectual breadth pause to think upon the condition of mankind. The...
...Offers new view of profit...
...Re-enthrones the economics, morals and politics of something-for-something...
...132: Sometimes it seems that people hear best what we do not say...
...Charts only path to better living...
...Incomprehensible societies do not produce comprehensible individuals...
...Such an observation ignores the basic processes of socialization (i.e., childrearing, education, religious training) whereby society, to a considerable extent, molds the hungers, desires, and motives of individuals...
...Thus, we are up against the paradox that the individual wh,~ is more complex, unpredictable, and mysterious than any communal entity is the one nearest to our understanding...
...Therefore, it is not too surprising that the five section-titles of the book cannot completely characterize the full panoply of subjects touched upon...
...46: It is cheering to see that the rats are still around--the ship is not sinking...
...Minds copulate wherever they meet...
...However, one shouldn't be too quick to accept or reject a Hofferism on the basis of a single reading...
...so near that even the interval of millenia cannot weaken our feeling of kinship...
...Readers of the book, I suppose, will be quick to pounce upon his or her favorite (and least favorite) Hofferisms...
...Thus talent is a species of vigor...
...92109 The Alternative October 1973 27...
...Such Hofferisms make one wish for the presence of Hoffer himself, so that one might debate these concise aphorisms with that effusive, boisterous man of the "passionate state of mind" whom we have seen on television interview programs...
...At the core of every true talent there is an awareness of the difficulties inherent in any achievement, and the confidence that by persistence and patience something worthwhile will be realized...
...P.O...
...Those who could not thrive when left to themselves never felt at ease in America...
...For example, some of the Hofferisms included in the section entitled "Between the Dragon and the Devil" seem more concerned with the phenomena of mass movements than with nature or good and evil per se...
...Sheds new light on cause and only possible cure of inflation and unemployment...
...176: Our triviality is proportionate to the seriousness with which we take ourselves...
...Personal growth in the sense of "depth" or"maturity" is the subject of Hofferisms placed in the "Creativity" section which also serves as a vehicle for attacks on intellectual elitism...
...Send check or money order direct to the publisher L()EFFLER &: CO., INC...
...142: There are no chaste minds...
...Discloses little known extent of union power and its abuses...
...53: The history of this country was made largely by people who wanted to be left alone...
...That way, one begins to find new truths and new suggestions of truth...
...If in some manner the voice of an individual reaches tLa from the remotest distance of time, it is a timeless voice speaking about ourselves...
...Individuals plucked from various historical and cultural settings may have some similar crude biological drives, but they will satisfy those drives in a manner acceptable to their respective societies and within the limits of the technologies available to them...
...the brevity of many Hofferisms belies the nuances of meaning which may be contained in these nuggets of thought...
...The teachings of Confucius, the essays of Francis Bacon, the discourses of Rousseau, and (to a more limited extent, perhaps) the thoughts of Chairman Mao are just some of the diverse examples of this type of writing which come to mind...
...Puts blame where it surprisingly belongs...
...Recalling Hoffer's excellent past work on the dynamics of mass movements ( The True Believer, 1951), I would have thought that what Hoffer would find fascinating and enduring in the human condition is the relationship between the individual and society and the many forms that relationship may take...
...The diversity of these Hofferisms undoubtedIy reflects Hoffer's own astonishingly wide range of life experiences (from pea-picking to life as a longshoreman and lecturer...
...183: It is the individual only who is timeless...
...Box 9622, San Diego, Calif...
...Societies, cultures, and civil i z a t i o n s - p a s t and present--are often incomprehensible to outsiders, but the individual's hungers, anxieties, dreams, and preoccupatiorL~ have remained tinchanged through the millenia...
...77: They who lack talent expect things to happen without effort...
...This is true not only of the pampered rich, hut of' the intellectuals, the chronically poor, and to some extent of the Negro...
...But of course...
...Freshly debunks something-for-nothing promised through government, unions, business or magic...
...Probably the best way to impart the flaw~r of this N~ok is to quote directly some of my own favorite Hofferisms: No...
...Hereafter, I shall refer to these one hundred and eighty-three observations as "Hofferisms...
...They ascribe failure to a lack of inspiration or ability, or to misfortune, rather than to insufficient application...
...17: Belief passes, but to have believed never passes...
...Now Eric Hoffer has presented us with another such work, Reflections on the Human Condition, a slim volume containing one hundred and eighty-three aphorisms and philosophical comments on the topics of "Between the Dragon and the Devil," "Troublemakers," "Creators," "Prognosticators," and "The Individual...
...158: How easy it is for a failure to seem foolish...
...Shows what you can do to correct the situation...
...Chapter on political sophistication worth the whole book...
...This is what Hoffer probably desired all along: that his own reflections and musings should serve to stimulate others to ponder and debate the human condition Frederick R. Lynch NEWEST CHALLENGE TO CURRENT CONSENSUS L i v e l y new guide f o r corrective thought leaders Assigns rewarding new course to be pursued personally and through othels...
...107: How much easier is self sacrifice than self-realization...
...It should be kept in rnind that half the fun of such books comes from rereading portiorL~ of the work over a period of several days...
...I am somewhat surprised by Hoffer's final comment in the book in which he states that the individual, rather than society, is timeless and more complex: No...
Vol. 7 • October 1973 • No. 1
