,
8 tweets,
5 min read
Read on Twitter
I’ve thought about, fought against, and written a lot on radicalization, applying Eric Hoffer’s theory on mass movements to Radical Islam. My article “The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements” lays out some of this. usacac.army.mil/CAC2/MilitaryR… 
Hoffer covers a lot of terrain in his analysis. Two parts apply most strongly to modern day radicalism: his discussion of why mass movements have appeal and his analysis of the traits most likely to produce converts to a mass movement.
Hoffer proposes it is neither the abject poor, nor the sated middle class, nor the wealthy who are most likely attracted to mass movements. Instead, it is the newly poor, or those who feel they have lost status, prestige, or were promised such things, who are most susceptible.
Hoffer says, it “is usually those whose poverty is relatively recent, the ‘new poor’ who throb with the ferment of frustration. The memory of better things is as fire in their veins.” We see this in radical Islam and it is also a big appeal of #MAGA.
Ideas to help prevent radicalization, each with drawbacks: 1 - substitution of one mass movement for another; 2 - substitution of communal structures for individualism; 3 - assistance for people specifically susceptible to recruitment (ie newly poor) and 4 - facilitate emigration
I plan to broaden the scope of my initial writing on Islamic radicalism, and focus also on the radicalization of the white middle class, how it fits (or doesn’t) in Hoffer’s schema, and how the solutions he proposed might work in this context. Stay tuned for more.
A commonality here is in giving alternative reasons to feel belonging, purpose, and worth.
