It's college reunion time... fund raising, etc.. Looking back, it feels like I jumped through 30 years, to suddenly find all the VERY IMPORTANT ISSUES even more compelling. Peace, sustainability, human rights, love... Still worth the good fight. Still causes that are likely to get one persecuted.
My New College days were eye openers. One book that was on the top of my list of inspirational reading was Eric Hoffer's The True Believer. We are more in danger of the destructive power of "true believers" today then we were during the Nixon paranoia.. and that was SCARY.

Hoffer said:
"The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause."

"A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding, when it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business."

"The taint inherent in absolute power is not its inhumanity but its antihumanity."

"The only index by which to judge a government or a way of life is by the quality of the people it acts upon. No matter how noble the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will and suspicion- it is an evil government."

"Absolute power corrupts even when exercised for humane purposes. The benevolent despot who sees himself as a shepherd of the people still demands from others the submissiveness of sheep."

"Freedom means freedom from forces and circumstances which would turn man into a thing, which would impose on man the passivity and predictability of matter. By this test, absolute power is the manifestation most inimical to human uniqueness. Absolute power wants to turn people into malleable clay."