REVIEW ESSAY the rise of mass movements at the intersection of discontent and power , stating , For men to plunge headlong into an undertaking of vast change , they must be intensely discontented yet not destitute , and they must have the feeling that by the possession of some potent doctrine , infallible leader or some new technique they have access to a source of irresistible power . 8
Here , the potential effects of the various Arab Spring movements come to mind , albeit stifled or subsumed , with both discontent in a present situation and hope in a doctrine ( at that point , democracy ) strongly intermixed across the Middle East . Where democracy could not take root , which was nowhere in any of those movements — not in Egypt , not in Yemen , certainly not in Syria or Iraq , nor in the states of the Arabian Gulf — Islamism provided and still provides an alternate source for the inculcation of a sense of “ irresistible power .”
The individual ’ s craving for that power is Hoffer ’ s next main point . He maintains that , rather than a Western concept of individual self-sufficiency offering a palliative , mass movement “ attracts and holds a following not because it can satisfy the desire for self-advancement , but because it can satisfy the passion for self-renunciation .” 9 Individualism scares most of the masses , more so with those who have come from a communal mindset , for when they succeed within a Western milieu those “ who attain fortune and fame often find it difficult to gain entrance into the exclusive circles of the majority . They are thus made conscious of their foreignness .” 10 Those who fail , and have neither individual success nor any longer a sense of communal identity , “ see their lives and the present as spoiled beyond remedy and they are ready to waste and wreck both ; hence , their recklessness and their will to chaos and anarchy .” 11 In the particular case of a deeply tribal and communal society such as those that comprise most of the Middle East , and especially with hope of a transition to democracy waning , Hoffer ’ s statement that “ all the advantages brought by the West are ineffectual substitutes for the sheltering and soothing anonymity of communal existence ” rings especially true . 12 Mass movements , like those on which Daesh and al-Qaida fuel their respective brands of radical Islam , provide the anonymity of a bygone commune , a purpose into which individual strivings can be melded and forgotten , and a power the subsumed individual can believe irresistible .
Hoffer makes two additional points in this section that are worth mentioning in the context of Islamic radicalism . First , he states that mass movements are a zero-sum proposition , competitive against one another for the raw material of financing and recruitment . 13 This bears out in the ongoing conflict not only in Syria between various splinter Islamist groups that coalesced into a dominant Daesh presence in early 2014 , but also in the now apparent struggle in various parts of the world between Daesh and al-Qaida . 14 Second , Hoffer begins his analysis by emphasizing that mass movements are interchangeable with one another . He says , in reference to the West , “ In the past , religious movements were the conspicuous vehicles of change . The conservatism of a religion — its orthodoxy — is the inert coagulum of a once highly reactive sap .” 15 He continues with other cases , “ In modern times , the mass movements involved in the realization of vast and rapid change are revolutionary and nationalist .” 16 He cites numerous examples of this interchangeability , and sums up the entire equation by stating , Since all mass movements draw their adherents from the same types of humanity and appeal to the same types of mind , it follows : ( a ) all mass movements are competitive , and the gain of one in adherents is the loss of all the others ; ( b ) all mass movements are interchangeable . … A religious movement may develop into a social revolution or a nationalist movement ; a social revolution , into militant nationalism or a religious movement ; a nationalist movement into a social revolution or a religious movement . 17
It just so happens that the sap flowing now , not soon to coagulate in the Middle East , takes the form of a religious movement , rather than a social
Lt . Col . Benjamin Buchholz , U . S . Army , is a strategic planner at U . S . Central Command . He served as Army attaché and chief of attaché operations in Sana ’ a , Yemen , from 2013 through the end of 2014 . He received an MA from Princeton ’ s Near East Studies program . His novel , One Hundred and One Nights ( New York : Little , Brown , 2011 ), was cited by Publisher ’ s Weekly as a “ top-ten contemporary war novel ,” and his article , “ The Human Shield in Islamic Jurisprudence ,” was featured in the May-June 2013 issue of Military Review .
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