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There's some overlap between this and what Eric Hoffer theorizes in the book "The True Believer" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_True_Believer https://en.wik
by adrianmonk 4y ago
There's some overlap between this and what Eric Hoffer theorizes in the book "The True Believer" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_True_Believer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_True_Believer).
A lot of this is guesswork, though. It could just as easily be that these activists are simply very angry about climate change and feel compelled by their anger to take some kind of action but (like a lot of people) aren't good at channeling it into constructive action.
- omginternets 4y agoI don’t think the two are mutually exclusive. My appeal to transcendent meaning is an attempt to explain why certain people feel compelled to act out their anger in these ways. There are many people who are angry and frustrated about climate change and don’t glue themselves to works of art — I’m one of them! My sense is that a second component is at play, and that it either adds an impulse to act, or increases frustration to the point of an outburst. It’s interesting to note that the behaviors are (a) highly ritualized and (b) carefully premeditated. They are certainly not consistent with an angry outburst. This is what I am trying to explain. I suspect the same is true of Eric Hoffer.