Eric Hoffer Quotes
If the Communists win Europe and a large part of the world, it will not be because they know how to stir up discontent or how to infect people with hatred, but because they know how to preach hope.
Hoffer, Eric. The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements. Harper & Brothers, 1951, p. 17.
Mandela was the head of the African National Congress a revolutionary party fighting against the then dictatorial apartheid government. As the head of the ANC armed wing, after years of peaceful protests and suffering literal massacres of people for nothing other than protesting, Mandela embarked upon a program of sabotage of military and government facilities reserving guerrilla warfare if that failed. Mandela was arrested for the sabotage and served 27 years in jail. While Mandela was incarcerated, the government resorted to death squads and massacres and the ANC retaliated with counter terrorism—but Mandela was not a part of it. There were a number of communists in the ANC movement, but when Mandela, released from jail, became the President of the integrated country, he maintained supported a capitalistic system which it has been ever since. However his refusal to purge the ANC of communists when he needed all the help he could get, has been held against him by some arch conservatives. To many of them, a communist is a communist, a friend of a communist is a communist, a person who knowingly works with or associates with communists is a communist, a revolutionary is a communist, a person who advocates whatever communists advocate is a communist, a person who opposes the investigation of communists in any field of endeavor is a communist. Mandella opposed racial discrimination and the Communist party also did to embarrass the US and other capitalistic countries which then had legal discrimination. Therefore, Mandella was accused of being a communist early in his career. The same thing happened in the United States where anyone who advocated Civil Rights and racial equality was a communist because he/she was echoing the communist line.
This was the origin of the ultra right wing British Fascistic.
In 1921 an Paul E. De Mott, an American Quaker famine relief worker in Germany was arrested as a "Bolshevik" and murdered without trial. American correspondents heard about the crime and asked for a statement from the chief American diplomat in Germany.
Hoover’s testimony not withstanding, communism in America never did spread like an epidemic.
Huntington classified the 1876 Senate into 3 categories. 'Clean' were those who voted his way but required no bribes. 'Commercial' voted his way but needed fiscal incentive. 'Communists' were those Senators who opposed his legislative agenda.
His official title was: President for Life, Protector of the People, Maximum Chief of the Revolution, Apostle of National Unity, Benefactor of the Poor, Grand Patron of Commerce and Industry, and Electrifier of Souls and the communists were one of the active groups who wanted to get rid of the brutal dictator.
The Red Scare had already reached most conservatives and Truman and most others had not yet been affected by the fear of Communism that so many people had through the 1970s.
Harriman at that time was the United States Ambassador to Russia and one of President Roosevelt’s closest advisers. There were those who claimed that the Roosevelt administration was very naïve about the potential danger of Stalin. This statement as well as others like it, show that the administration was not so naïve and ignorant.
Eric Hoffer was an American moral and social philosopher. He was the author of ten books and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in February 1983. His first book, The True Believer (1951), was widely recognized as a classic, receiving critical acclaim from both scholars and laymen, although Hoffer believed that The Ordeal of Change was his finest work.
