Eric hoffer award

Biography of Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer was an American moral and social philosopher and writer. He was born on July 25, 1902, in the Bronx, a suburb of New York City, to German immigrant parents. At the age of seven, his mother passed away suddenly, and he was left in the care of a governess. In the same year, he inexplicably lost his sight and remained blind for eight long years of his childhood. At the age of fifteen, his vision returned under mysterious circumstances, but doctors warned him that he could go blind again at any moment. Filled with despair, Hoffer began reading everything he could, using every moment to absorb as much knowledge as possible before darkness returned.

In the same year, his father fell ill, and the family began a steady descent into poverty. Hoffer had to find work to prevent himself and his father from starving. With no formal education, his options were limited to the dirtiest and lowest-paying jobs. He never had the opportunity to attend school or university. Instead, he acquired all his knowledge through self-education, reading books that he carried with him wherever he went. While his peers were attending school, Hoffer spent his time in darkness and solitude. While his peers were in college and university, he worked as a dockhand, dishwasher, lumberjack, and railroad worker. Wherever he went, he always had a book in his pocket. Hoffer recalled that he chose his books based solely on their size, thickness, and font: only small books could fit in his pockets. His ideal book was a thick, small-sized book with a small font. The first book that met all these criteria was a collection of essays by Montaigne.

In 1920, when Hoffer was eighteen, his father passed away. With nothing holding him in New York, he made the decision to move to California, where it was easier to survive without money. "After my father's death," he later recalled, "I realized that I would have to take care of myself. I already knew a few things for sure: first, that I didn't want to work in a factory; second, that I couldn't bear to depend on the favor of any boss; third, that I would always be poor; fourth, that I needed to leave New York. Logic told me that the best place for a poor person was California." For the next twenty years, he lived a nomadic life, moving from place to place in California, taking on seasonal work. Throughout this time, he never stopped reading the books he borrowed from libraries.

Until 1941, he continued his transient lifestyle, moving from place to place in search of work to survive. With the onset of the war, he tried to enlist in the military but failed the medical examination. Instead, he joined the longshoremen's union and worked in the port for the next twenty-five years, until 1967. Several days a week, he performed physically demanding work in the port, devoting all his other time to reading. Gradually, he began to write down his thoughts, which took shape in his future book. His first and most significant book, "The True Believer," was published in 1951. It was unlike any other book of its time, completely disregarding the popular trends of that era, particularly Freudianism, which had consumed American psychological science. Avoiding academic establishment, Hoffer wrote a truly original book, filled with polished, vivid, and remarkably concise thoughts on the nature of power, social movements, and the inner lives of people.

Fifty years later, the first book by Hoffer was translated into Russian. Its weight and significance only increased over time. Written just a few years after the end of World War II, at a time when dreams of universal peace and brotherhood were replaced by the bitter reality of a new stage of military confrontation and the hopelessness of the Cold War between two superpowers, Hoffer's work remains radical for the gray majority, and his statements are still sharp and unpleasant to the ears of ordinary people. And there are more thoughts in his book than words. To this day, the academic world and the general public do not know what to make of Hoffer. He is labeled as a "modern Machiavelli" and an eccentric. Twenty years after his death and fifty years after the publication of "The True Believer," Eric Hoffer's name is still little known, especially to Russian-speaking readers.

The book "The True Believer" is a piercing look at human society from the outside. Only an outsider who never found his place in modern society could provide such a clear description of human nature.

Even after becoming an honorary professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Hoffer gave lectures in his work clothes and attended the meetings of the academic council after a hard day's work at the port. He lived his whole life in solitude but never felt burdened by it. He believed that true loneliness and melancholy lie in the inability to be alone with oneself and think independently.

In 1982, President Reagan awarded Eric Hoffer the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States.

"The True Believer" is included in the mandatory curriculum of the "Politics" course that I have the honor of teaching at the Elitarium. With only a hundred pages, it contains concentrated wisdom, the result of years of analysis, reflection, hard work, and the comprehension of human nature. This book cannot be read just once. With each new reading, it reveals new profound layers of thought. The publication of Hoffer's first book was a true civic act by Alpina Business Books, or, as they say in the author's homeland, a "social service."

Hoffer's life left little room for illusions. "The True Believer" does not contain watery arguments, careless flaunting of knowledge, artistic flair, or self-indulgence that many works of scholars with money, families, well-paid prestigious positions, and other attributes of social status tend to have.

One of the main ideas of this book is that a passionate interest in the world around us or the personal lives of others is an attempt to compensate for the lack of meaning in our own lives. This book still provides the best explanation for the existence of any social organization, religion, political party, or cult, as well as the reasons why people are fascinated by mass movements, from terrorist organizations to street gangs.

Eric Hoffer was far ahead of his time. Fifty years after the publication of "The True Believer," this book remains one of the most significant and underrated works of our time.