There is perhaps some hope to be derived from the fact that in most instances where an attempt to realize an ideal society gave birth to the ugliness and violence of a prolonged active mass movement the experiment was made on a vast scale and with a heterogeneous population. Such was the case in the rise of Christianity and Islam, and in the French, Russian and Nazi revolutions. The promising communal settlements in the small state of Israel and the successful programs of socialization in the small Scandinavian states indicate perhaps that when the attempt to realize an ideal society is undertaken by a small nation with a more or less homogeneous population it can proceed and succeed in an atmosphere which is neither hectic nor coercive.

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Certainly Europe had undergone a similar destruction of tradition but it had occurred centuries earlier at the end of the Medieval period and produced better results thanks to different circumstances. " He saw these puberty rites as essential for self-esteem and noted that mass movements and juvenile mindsets tend to go together to the point that anyone no matter what age who joins a mass movement immediately begins to exhibit juvenile behavior. Consequently self-loathing produces explosive effects that cannot be mitigated through social engineering schemes such as programs of wealth redistribution.

In 2001 the Eric Hoffer Award was establiEric Hofferd in his honor with permission granted by the Eric Hoffer Estate in 2005. His first book The True Believer publiEric Hofferd in 1951 was widely recognized as a classic receiving critical acclaim from both scholars and laymen although Hoffer believed that his book The Ordeal of Change was his finest work.