Written to a constituent in 1959, Eisenhower warned against the tendency of many Americans to prefer the certainty of dictatorship to the doubt and disorder of more democratic forms of government. In closing, Eisenhower recommended one of his favorite books, Eric Hoffer's classic The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements (1951). Eisenhower himself was known to have given copies to friends.
I have thought for many years that The True Believer should be required reading for high school civics, along with Fromm's Escape from Freedom (1941). A lot of our fellow Americans could greatly benefit from both of them.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218041638#post17
I first heard about the Biggs letter in a talk given by reporter Max Blumenthal. Here is an excerpt of the letter.
I doubt that citizens like yourself could ever, under our democratic system, be provided with the universal degree of certainty, the confidence in their understanding of our problems, and the clear guidance from higher authority that you believe needed...in a democracy debate is the breath of life. This is to me what Lincoln meant by government "of the people, by the people, and for the people."
The mental stress and burden which this form of government imposes has been particularly well recognized in a little book about which I have spoken on several occasions. It is The True Believer by Eric Hoffer; you might find it of interest. In it, he points out that dictatorial systems make one contribution to their people which leads them to tend to support such systems--freedom from the necessity of...making up their own minds concerning...complex and difficult questions. But while this responsibility is a taxing one to a free people it is their great strength as well--from...free minds come new ideas, new adjustments to emerging problems, and tremendous vigor, vitality and progress.
One of my own major aims and efforts has been to assist in every way open to me in giving our people a better understanding of the great issues that face our country today--some of them indeed issues of life and death. Through being better informed, they can best gain greater assurance regarding our nation’s situation and participate in establishing policies and programs which they think to be sound and right. The quest for certainty is at best, however, a long and arduous one. While complete success will always elude us, still it is a quest which is vital to self-government and to our way of life as free men.
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