Whose business do you mind?

One's first blog post sets the tone for all that follows. With this in mind, I offer my favorite quote from one of my favorite authors:

"A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business."
- Eric Hoffer, The True Believer, 1951

For more on Hoffer's thoughts, here's a commentary I wrote for Cascade Policy Institute. It was recorded by talk radio host Peter Weissbach and broadcast over KBNP radio in Portland, Oregon on August 3, 1992.

CASCADE COMMENTARY
The True Believer

As we try to make sense of our world, it helps to explore the wisdom of people like Eric Hoffer. Known as the longshoreman philosopher, Hoffer had virtually no formal education, yet his awareness of the human condition was exceptional. His first book, "The True Believe" was published in 1951. Subtitled "Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements," it offers insights still helpful today. Here are just a few of Eric Hoffer's observations:

"The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause."

"A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business."

There are many more gems in this little book, but I'll close with a chilling one:

"Unless a man has the talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden...We join a mass movement to escape from individual responsibility, or, in the words of an ardent young Nazi, 'to be free from freedom.' It was not sheer hypocrisy when the rank-and-file Nazis declared themselves not guilty of all the enormities they had committed. They considered themselves cheated and maligned when made to shoulder responsibility for obeying orders. Had they not joined the Nazi movement in order to be free from responsibility?"

The True Believer is still among us. Read Hoffer's book and decide for yourself who he --or she-- is today.

This is Weissbach.