Dick Cheney, True Believer

“Bottom line is that we've had enormous successes, and we will continue to have enormous successes.”

Dick Cheney to Wolf Blitzer - Jan. 24, 2007

A doctrine insulates the devout not only against the realities around them but also against their own selves. The fanatical believer is not conscious of his envy, malice, pettiness and dishonesty. There is a wall of words between his consciousness and his real self.

Eric Hoffer, The True Believer (1951)

Vehemence is the expression of a blind effort to support and uphold something that can never stand on its own...Whether it our own meaningless self we are upholding, or some doctrine devoid of evidence, we can do it only in a frenzy of faith.

Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind (1954)