Hoffer, Eric. The True Believer. New York: Harper & Row, 1989. The True Believer is a manuscript that attempts to grant justification as to why people would be drawn to a mass movement. A mass movement is a form of social, economic, or religious movement where a large group of people attempt to rise up and evoke a change away from the status quo. "This book deals with some peculiarities common to all mass movements, be they religious movements, social revolutions or nationalist movements." The book is divided into four parts. Part one pertains to The Appeal of Mass Movements. Part two covers the Potential Converts. Part three involves United Action and Self-Sacrifice. And Part four is titled Beginning and End. Throughout these four sections the author covers many sub-categories. Part one, The Appeal of Mass Movements, describes why people would be drawn towards a mass movement. "For men to plunge headlong into an undertaking of vast change, they must be intensely discontented yet not destitute, and they must have the feeling that by the possession of some potent doctrine." (Page 11) During this chapter the author uses a wealth of historical information including the French Revolution and the English Industrial Revolution. The author also details what conditions are most suited for a mass movement to take place. He tells that when people are ready for mass movement, they will usually go for any type. Part two, The Potential Converts, discusses what type of people would be most willing to engage in a mass movement. These people are usually very well off or very poor. There do not seem to be many sections pertaining to the middle class. When discussing the poor, the author makes it a point to show that just because a person is poor, it does not necessarily mean that they are unhappy. "Poverty when coupled with creativeness is usually free of frustration." (Page 34) A main argument brought up within the confines of this section is that social status alone is usually not enough to press people for a mass movement. The author tells that poor people who have strong family ties are less likely to revolt. It takes a general discontent, coupled with ... ... middle of paper ... ...ut their plans. Also, most topics brought up in this book would be hard to debate either side without at least some personal perspective about what it is like to be in a struggling class, which most people in America lack. Concluding thoughts on this book are as follows. The author does a supreme job organizing the topics in this book rationally. He takes things that would seem obvious to others in relation to a particular topic, and describes them so in depth that it is almost as though a personal epiphany is reached in each section. To put it plainly, this book just makes sense. Nothing in it had the feel of new information; rather it takes old information and applies it perfectly to pertaining topics. The author does a lot to ensure that all of his arguments are grounded in logic and reasoning rather than in facts and figures. Granted he does use history to prove many points, but for many others he makes arguments that just seem sensible. This book, however difficult to read due to a wide use of vocabulary, is very thought provoking and should be read by anybody who has ever sought justification for the way societies act in different situations.
Existing within the movement must be a leader or leaders, as well as a large number of committed followers or members. Additionally, social movements have “organizations or coalitions” working as a guiding backbone for collectivity and regulation (Stewart,
Chapter 2 of “Bind Spot” corresponds with the topic of “Shades of Truth”. The chapter was about the difference of lies, which people give to each other. White lies are known to be the most innocent lie; it is a common lie to prevent hurting others. A example of a White Lie would be saying that you remember a person even though you have never seen them before. Blue Lies are lies that seem true, however, they are not. For example, a wrestler confirms his coach that he did not eat the night before, even though, the wrestler did actually ate meals. Red lies are lies that become second nature. It makes us survive longer. For example, someone pointing a gun to you saying, “Do you know this person?” You respond with denial, however, you actually do know the person but denied it because you wanted to survive.
All are firm in their convictions and believe they have good intent, but over time a net of moral corruption enfolds them all and they are forced to make choices based on what is necessary, not what is right and wrong. Acts of Faith is the story of politics and religion and the successes and failures of these relief workers as they get swept up in the plight of Africa. Eventually the vastness of human misery that is war swallows all of them. What began as business enterprises, liberation of slave...
From reading the book, I have developed my own stance that the book education system is similar to today’s education system. I can relate with the text because I have noticed most of my history fails to mention successes of the Negroes. In fact, I was astonished that Dr. George Washington Carver had invented peanut butter. I can relate to chapter four’s solution because in my school system, Teach For America teachers who were from different areas and ethnic backgrounds were ill equipped to teach African American students while an older teacher would be able to raise test scores and teach students
My overall opinion of this book is good I really liked it and recommend it to anyone. It is a good book to read and it keep you interested throughout the whole book.
This is my personal reflection about this book. First and foremost, I would like to say that this book is very thick and long to read. There are about nineteen chapters and 278 pages altogether. As a slow reader, it is a quite hard for me to finish reading it within time. It took me weeks to finish reading it as a whole. Furthermore, it is written in English version. My English is just in average so sometimes I need to refer to dictionary for certain words. Sometimes I use google translate and ask my friends to explain the meaning of certain terms.
To conclude, I can continue to go on about the caste system, racism, and war on drugs. The point is that racism continues to exist and the rebirth of the caste, continues to exist it never went away. People just did not do as much, but now is more obvious than ever. The clear examples she introduce and statistic show and support the statement of the “rebirth of the caste”. In my opinion, I found the book interesting; and statistic surprising from class and the book. Things continue to go bad in the United States. When are we going to do something about it! This book shows the effects of the
I found this book to be a rather interesting read. I enjoyed how Levathes researched this book and wrote it to try to explain about this specific period of time and how it is very non-fiction.
...nd enjoyable. The one thing that did bug me was that Youngs does not directly tie his thesis directly to the end of the book. It would have been helpful for the reader to be able to confirm Youngs’s intention for writing the book, but since he fails to re-introduce his argument in the end, it left me questioning that intention.
In Conclusion, all the authors are phenomenal writers who put into perspective the correlation between property and inequality. Each author has their own opinion, but not one author is necessarily wrong. They do a great job of describing the backings of a great society and the laws that make man kind do what they have done in the past and everyday including natural law and moral law. In the end everyone will have there opinion as to who's outlook is correct or who's opinion they agree with most. All three authors need to be praised for their works as they have influenced so many events in history. All we can do is read and take into consideration the sacrifices these authors made in order to help the world as we know it.
Conclusion In chapter two I agreed with some of the points that she was talking about for example, when she was talking about the people who would take the easy was pout will most likely take it instead of earning it by actually working for it like most of the people would love to do it to feel the satisfaction of accomplishing it without the help of other people I also agreed that there is some people that will have the feeling that they deserve the help that people give them because they cannot help themselves so depend on other people to give them the easy way out. But some people do really need the help and they don 't want the help but they cannot make it through with out the help from other people. And in the fourth chapter I agree with the Samaritan rebellion because some other people have it a lot easier than the ones who do most of the hard work for the minimum wage jobs and have no time to take care of their families and can 't take time off to take them to see a doctor either because they will lose the job or have no medical coverage and have to pay a lot of money to just see a
Overall, New Social Movements are defined by their particular reflections of individualist, post-industrialism, though the basic premises for the formation of movements remain. Individuals have grievances which affect their choices of action and organization. Though collective action is acted out in different ways and reflects a less unified identity formation process, NSM’s bring to bear their effects on society by the sum of the actions of its members, whether those actions are personal or collective, and whether or not ideology is broadly shared. In this way, it may be detrimental to call New Social Movements “new.” Their context has changed, and so they have changed. The evolution of social movements reflects both their current environment and their roots.
After the French Revolution of the late 18th century and Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, many Europeans were inspired to encourage revolutions in the hopes of more freedoms and/or protection. Some hoped that the freedoms granted during the French Revolution could expand into something larger and more beneficial to all. Others wanted restrictions so that the abuses of the Industrial Revolution would come to end and protect those who desperately needed protection. The lower and working classes after both the French and the Industrial Revolution wanted conflicts between classes to be cleared up for all. The French and Industrial Revolution encouraged numerous people of different groups, wealth, classes, jobs, etc to push toward the goals and liberties that they thought they were entitled to; while some received what they wanted and were pleased, others did not and resented any more revolutions. England appeared to be an exception to all the violence and destruction that France needed to make reforms as it passed acts and laws peacefully, benefiting a large of people who protested.
Social movements require a fairly complex and multi-dimensional paradigm in order to adequately explain the multiplicity of factors that contribute to their development and sustenance. Like both McAdam and Costain, I believe that the political process model is a much more appropriate theory for social movements than either the classical model (with its emphasis on psychology) or the resource mobilization model (with its ultra-capitalistic approach to all socio-political interactions). Indeed, unlike the classical and resource mobilization theories, the political process model incorporates a number of different factors, making it significantly more realistic and versatile. Both McAdam and Costain analyze a set of empirical evidence in order to judge the credibility of the political process model as a comprehensive paradigm for social movements. While I except the political process model as the most accurate theoretical description of social movements, I do not agree with Costain's reformulation of 'political process.' Indeed, I believe that Costain succumbs to a subtle regression into elitist theory.
New social movements focus on social and cultural issues, rather than economic or political considerations. It ‘concentrates on bringing about social mobilization through cultural innovation, the development of new lifestyles, and the transformation of identities’ (Postill 2012). It also brings a sense of common purpose and shared commitment which enables single activist and/or organization to regard themselves as inextricably linked to each other, to enhance a broader mobilization (Porta and Diani 2006: 21). New social movements emphasise on the role of post-materia...