Atheistically Speaking Book Club discussion

This is the discussion thread for the last part of The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements.

Part 4 - Beginning and End

I'm still not sure what to think of this book, but I don't think I liked it. There was a ton of over simplification and generalizations throughout, and I don't think it ever really said anything interesting or useful. It just felt like a bunch of rambling observations.

I ended up not liking this book. Initially I quite enjoyed it and I highlighted a few passages. By the halfway point I became bored and the book seemed to be very repetitive. It would seem that the frustrated and disaffected poor have a lot to answer for.

I kept thinking of the "armchair scientists" from the 18th and 19th centuries who, for example, explored Africa from the safety of their living rooms. While Eric Hoffer was obviously well-read, I don't remember much in the way of evidence to back up the claims that he was making. I think he admits as much in the quote that Danielle used in Part 1.

My favorite section of the book was Ch XIV - Unifying Agents - Hatred. Nothing new there but it can easily be seen in politics and religion in the United States and elsewhere.

I also enjoyed the following passage:
All mass movements rank obedience with the highest virtues and put it on a level with faith: "union of minds requires not only a perfect accord in the one Faith, but complete submission and obedience of will to the Church and the Roman Pontiff as to God Himself."45 Obedience is not only the first law of God, but also the first tenet of a revolutionary party and of fervent nationalism. "Not to reason why" is considered by all mass movements the mark of a strong and generous spirit.
Page 117
45. Leo XIII, Sapientiae Christianae. According to Luther, "Disobedience is a greater sin than murder, unchastity, theft and dishonesty...." Quoted by Jerome Frank, Fate and Freedom (New York: Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1945), p.281.

Throughout the book Hoffer includes religions (Christianity and Islam) and political ideologies (Communism and National Socialism) as examples of mass movements. I think that this negates the argument of 'Who has killed more people, atheists or the religious?'. Stalin and Hitler are used most frequently by the religious as examples of atheists, which is debatable in my opinion. Ultimately it doesn't matter. Mass movements have killed the most people, and blind obedience is at their core.

Maybe this book is better than I thought?