In modern mass movements, the devil is a necessary evil.
Voltaire famously observed that if the devil did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. The post-Christian West has replaced religious piety with ideological devotion, making it necessary to reinvent the devil for each successive movement.
In his classic study of mass movements and the personalities drawn to them, Eric Hoffer wrote:
“Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without believe in a devil. Usually the strength of a mass movement is proportionate to the vividness and tangibility of its devil.” (1)
Secular Religions, New Devils
The religious nature of mass movements, even those ostensibly secular in outlook, is frequently discussed. New streams of populist nationalism and woke cosmopolitanism both have a spiritual zealotry to them. Occupy Wall Street railed against “the corporations,” QAnon has “the elites,” and so on. Common enemies animate passions in ways nothing else can.
Of course, there are evil leaders, movements, institutions, and actions, and people of good will should not ignore them. The danger is those who seek power unscrupulously, and know that a key to gaining influence is by giving people an enemy to fight.
The Better Angels
As I often say from the pulpit in contentious election seasons: beware those who desire to motivate via fear or hatred. Be careful what buttons those who want your vote, your attention, or your clicks are pushing. In the end, it is always healthier to be moving toward something you love than away from something you loathe. If your life is consumed with disdain for liberals, or evangelicals, or Trump voters, or immigrants, you’ve not so much found a cause as been sold a bill of goods. The uncertainty that accompanies a pandemic makes us all the more susceptible to these temptations.
Better, in Lincoln’s famous phrasing, to turn to the better angels of our nature than live to fight against the necessary (d)evils that those in power have created to further their own ends.
- Eric Hoffer, The True Believer (New York: Harper 2010), p. 91.