Hmm... sounds like a few people I could name... But he's a real character, thoughtful and passionate, and fun to watch in that series. I picked up "The True Believer" again and thought maybe he had a few things to say about ERE and its believers. For instance:Eric Hoffer lives in one room in a Chinese section of San Francisco. No telephone, or TV. No easy chair. His own files and a few books. A folding desk. Retired now as a longshoreman, he walks almost everyday through Golden Gate park, about two and a half miles. He sees or hears some little thing. An idea begins to be born. He may jot down a short note about it...
(one thing = ERE? who here hasn't been dissatisfied lacking that?)
"Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing."
A quick sample of some other bits I've appreciated...
"Poverty when coupled with creativeness is usually free of frustration. This is true of the poor artisan skilled in his trade and of the poor writer, artist and scientist in the full possession of creative powers. Nothing so bolsters our self-confidence and reconciles us with ourselves as the continuous ability to create; to see things grow and develop under our hand, day in, day out. The decline of handicrafts in modern times is perhaps one of the causes for the rise of frustration and the increased susceptibility of the individual to mass movements."
"We dare more when striving for superfluities than for necessities. Often when we renounce superfluities we end up lacking in necessities."
As always, definitely worth picking up this book and his others to find more.
"Unlimited opportunities can be as potent a cause of frustration as a paucity or lack of opportunities. When opportunities are apparently unlimited, there is an inevitable deprecation of the present. The attitude is: "All that I am doing or possibly can do is chicken feed compared with what is left undone." Such is the frustration which broods over gold camps and haunts taut minds in boom times. Hence the remarkable fact that, joined with the ruthless self-seeking which seems to be the mainspring of gold-hunters, land-grabbers and other get-rich-quick enthusiasts, there is an excessive readiness for self-sacrifice and united action. Patriotism, racial solidarity, and even the preaching of revolution find a more ready response among people who see limitless opportunities spread out before them than among those who move within the fixed limits of a familiar, orderly and predictable pattern of existence."