It is an article of faith in much of the Right that the only way to oppose tyrants and fanatics, whether Nazis, Communists, or ISIS, is with tyranny and fanaticism. Experience shows those willing to learn from it that both sides, indeed multiple sides can be wrong, and that building a just society works better. Science can go further, as we have seen in several areas of study described in the books we have been reading for this series. We know much more than we used to about how such people think and how such movements operate, and also about how to counter them short of war, hot or cold.
It is therefore instructive to go back and look at a seminal work on the subject, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, by Eric Hoffer, from 1951, when the science delving into Hitler and Stalin was in its infancy. (Free PDF) What did Hoffer get right, and what did he get wrong?
