Eric Hoffer Quotes
It is remarkable by how much a pinch of malice enhances the penetrating power of an idea or an opinion. Our ears, it seems, are wonderfully attuned to sneers and evil reports about our fellow men.
Hoffer, Eric. The Passionate State of Mind, and Other Aphorisms. Harper & Brothers, 1955.
Haldeman had actually called the network executives on several occasions regarding Cavett’s show. Nixon was particularly furious when Cavett interviewed John Kerry, the decorated soldier who had thrown his medals away in protest to the handling of the Vietnam War. Nixon wanted some stronger actions taken.
A privately produced anti-Muslim video was used by Muslim activists throughout the world to whip up violent protests of the United States, Many people were killed. The President was explaining to world leaders the Western view of the importance of protecting free speech, even that which is blasphemous or hateful. One problem of course is that the Islamic holy scripture, The Koran, requires that a blasphemer be put to death. The Jewish and Christian Old Testament proscribes the SAME punishment, and there have been American Christians who have called for a return to literal Mosaic Law. Also ultra-orthodox Jews in America and Israel. The difference of the West is that literal interpretation of the Bible has been given up and the various Biblical Death penalties (including disobedient children and adulterers) and much of the Muslim world has not. For most of the West, democracy has tempered literal religion. For the Islamic world, literal religion has inhibited and obstructed democracy.
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.
