Eric Hoffer and Repubblika’s Politics of Hate: The Search for a Permanent Enemy

I suggest that my readers listen to this short explanation of Eric Hoffer’s theory of hatred. In my view, what is argued here applies particularly well to Repubblika and the movements associated with Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta.

A shared hostility towards a common enemy holds these groups together. To preserve their unity and sense of purpose, they must continually identify someone their supporters can unite against. Yorgen Fenech has served this purpose: he has been presented not simply as an accused person, but as the embodiment of evil. His acquittal by a jury appears to have intensified, rather than diminished, the hostility directed towards him.

According to this interpretation of Hoffer, however, once the common enemy is defeated or disappears, the bond holding such a movement together begins to weaken. Without an external enemy, its members may eventually turn against one another. Otherwise, they need to find a new enemy to continue to exist. Indeed, if one considers the movement’s recent history, its first major enemy was Dr Joseph Muscat. Once Muscat withdrew from politics, Yorgen Fenech replaced him as its principal target. This has helped keep the movement active to this day.

This, I believe, is the mistake the Labour government is making. By supporting or accommodating these groups, it helps preserve a movement sustained by hostility toward a carefully selected adversary. Such a movement needs a permanent enemy to maintain its internal unity.

This may also help to explain why certain leaders of the Roman Catholic Church support the movement. Whatever their intentions, they have aligned themselves with a divisive political campaign built by Repubblika and its allies around the continual identification of enemies.

Hatred, however, is ultimately self-destructive. It eventually consumes the movements that depend upon it. In my view, it has already contributed to the PN’s destruction as an effective electoral force. After four successive electoral defeats, the party remains unelectable, while its own members increasingly turn against one another.

The same danger confronts the movement built around Daphne Caruana Galizia’s legacy, since much of her writing was characterised by personal hostility and relentless enemy-identification. During the trial, we already saw members and supporters of the Caruana Galizia family attack leading figures within the PN who had previously endorsed their politics of hate against Yorgen Fenech.

If the Labour Party is not cautious, and if it adopts—as it now appears increasingly likely to do—the same politics of hatred, it too may eventually be damaged by the forces it is now helping to sustain.

At least, this is how Eric Hoffer’s theory may be applied to the present political situation in Malta.