“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.”
Source: The Ordeal of Change (1963), Ch. 11: "Brotherhood"
Context: It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor. There may even be a certain antagonism between love of humanity and love of neighbor; a low capacity for getting along with those near us often goes hand in hand with a high receptivity to the idea of the brotherhood of men. About a hundred years ago a Russian landowner by the name of Petrashevsky recorded a remarkable conclusion: "Finding nothing worthy of my attachment either among women or among men, I have vowed myself to the service of mankind." He became a follower of Fourier, and installed a phalanstery on his estate. The end of the experiment was sad, but what one might perhaps have expected: the peasants — Petrashevsky's neighbors-burned the phalanstery.
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. In a Communist state love of neighbor may be classed as counter-revolutionary.
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Eric Hoffer 240
American philosopher 1898–1983Related quotes
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Miscellaneous
Statement on significations in his painting "Reaching for the Stars", at the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame, Florida, USA.
After the moon, art is his mission (1997)
“All men are moral. Only their neighbors are not.”
Source: The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), Part Two, Chapter XI
Sir Robert Peel
Biographical Studies (1907)
“All mankind, right down to those you most despise, are your neighbors.”
"Lost in Non-Translation" (1989), in Magic (Voyager, 1997) p. 270
General sources
Dans un mois, dans un an (1957, Those Without Shadows, translated 1957)
Source: "Locked Between Two Large Neighbors, Mongolia Seeks to Connect With the World" in IPI Global Observatory https://theglobalobservatory.org/2013/10/locked-between-two-large-neighbors-mongolia-seeks-to-connect-with-the-world/ (4 October 2013)
Context: This is the concept after 1990.