Analyzing the characteristics shared by leaders of nationalistic, religious and revolutionary mass movements, Eric Hoffer comes to the following conclusion on page 112 of his book, The True Believer:

“What are the [leader’s] talents requisite for such a performance? Exceptional intelligence, noble character and originality seem neither indispensable nor perhaps desirable. The main requirements seem to be: audacity and a joy in defiance; an iron will; a fanatical conviction that he is in possession of the one and only truth; faith in his destiny and luck; a capacity for passionate hatred; contempt for the present: a cunning estimate of human nature; a delight in symbols (spectacles and ceremonials); unbounded brazenness which finds expression in a disregard of consistency and fairness; a recognition that the innermost craving of a following is for communion and that there can never be too much of it; a capacity for winning and holding the utmost loyalty of a group of able lieutenants.

This last faculty is one of the most essential and elusive. The uncanny powers of a [mass movement] leader manifest themselves not so much in the hold he has on the masses as in his ability to dominate and almost bewitch a small group of able men. Not all the qualities enumerated above are equally essential.”

I was surprised to find that Eric Hoffer published this work back in 1951.  He was a self-educated American longshoreman, turned social philosopher, and wrote 10 books. Am I mistaken, or did I just stumble upon Donald J. Trump’s playbook?

Characterists of leaders of mass movements. Photo attributed to Gerd Altmann, Pixabay. www.walled-in-berlin.com

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Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.