When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.

Eric Hoffer (1902–1983), a self-educated American longshoreman and social philosopher, often wrote about mass behavior, conformity, and the psychological roots of collective movements. This remark reflects a recurring theme in his mid‑20th‑century essays: that modern societies may prize individual liberty while still producing strong pressures toward sameness through fashion, opinion, and social imitation. Hoffer’s work emerged in the aftermath of World War II and amid Cold War anxieties about propaganda and mass politics, when many thinkers were trying to explain why people so readily align with groups even in ostensibly free societies.

Hoffer’s remark points to a paradox of liberty: even when external constraints are minimal, social pressures and the desire for belonging often guide behavior. “Free to do as they please” does not automatically yield originality; instead, people frequently look to others for cues about what to want, how to act, and what counts as acceptable or admirable. The line reflects Hoffer’s broader interest in mass behavior and conformity—how crowds, fashions, and movements can standardize thought and conduct. It suggests that independence is not merely a political condition but a psychological achievement, requiring inner resources (confidence, critical judgment) to resist imitation.