Eric Hoffer was a longshoreman. And also a philosopher and historian.
Nothing is so unsettling to a social order as the presence of a mass of scribes without suitable employment and an acknowledged status…The explosive component in the contemporary scene is not the clamor of the masses but the self-righteous claims of a multitude of graduates from schools and universities. This army of scribes is clamoring for a society in which planning, regulation, and supervision are paramount and the prerogative of the educated.
They hanker for the scribe’s golden age, for a return to something like the scribe-dominated societies of ancient Egypt, China, and the Europe of the Middle Ages. There is little doubt that the present trend in the new and renovated countries toward social regimentation stems partly from the need to create adequate employment for a large number of scribes." - Eric Hoffer, The Ordeal of Change
Also:
...Some of the worst tyrannies of our day genuinely are "vowed" to the service of mankind, yet can function only by pitting neighbor against neighbor. The all-seeing eye of a totalitarian regime is usually the watchful eye of the next-door neighbor....
Or Ford, GM, Chrysler--the ones who build listening systems into your car. Or MS and Apple with their listening/watching systems.
More: a short interview conducted by Eric Sevareid. Hoffer pretty much despises "intellectuals" who become power-mad (and 'maddened).
Maybe we'll have to read more Hoffer.
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