I wrote in a previous essay that fanaticism has been the chief source of wars, riots and other violent disturbances throughout history. Parenthetically, I said that boredom was probably next in line. Here's why.
Shakespeare enthusiasts are familiar with the opening soliloquay in Richard the Third. The play opens with Richard telling us that he is bored. There is peace in the land, everyone is enjoying life by pursuing a variety of worthwhile interests like drunken parties and jolly bedroom romps with castle babes --- everyone except Richard. Richard has nothing to do all day. He could of course wander the castle grounds observing nature, or he could take up knitting sweaters, but that's not enough. So he started a civil war. It didn't turn out well for him, he lost, but at least he wasn't bored any more.
Think about this. In Shakespeare's time and throughout the centuries before and thereafter there really wasn't much in the form of canned entertainment for anyone to enjoy. There was work, of course, but the leisure class had no real work which had to be done in most cases. There was no radio or TV, no computers, no cell phones or movies. And you couldn't go to Paris or London if you lived somewhere else, at least at any reasonable speed. In fact up until the twentieth century there really weren't all that many ways to fill up leisure time. There were parties and athletic events, and romantic assignations in the castle, but that wasn't enough for the restless spirit of man. Anyway, Richard wasn't cool enough to have even that. He was bored. What better to do with time on one's hands than start a war? War can be a real hoot if you win and you don't need to think about losing.
But we still have wars, oodles of them; two world wars, Korea, Vietnam, the middle east, war here, war there, war everywhere. Why? Because there is no end to the human desire for stimulation and excitement. And a lot of world leaders aren't ready for a rocking chair and a pension. They still need stimulation and excitement and are ready to satisfy the need with their expertise at starting wars.
Anyway, our old companion fanaticism is and always will also be around. This tribe doesn't like that one. That means that that one is evil. And of course this religion doesn't like that one; nations, ethnic goupings and races don't like each other. So you still have plenty of reasons to start wars even with TV and movies to fight your boredom. To help us resolve any boredom still remaining, and supply plenty of fanaticism, along come charismatic leaders --- Hitler, Tojo, Castro, Mao, Ahmadinijad and Khadaffi (or however they spell their names this week) to start our riots and wars for us. Bin Laden is gone but there are plenty of other psychos, sociopaths and crackpots to take his place. Who really needs nutty dictators anyway? We've got plenty of politicians in both parties to take up any slack. And it's actually easier to start a war in some ways now, possibly with the hope of winning, than it used to be because if you can buy a few atom bombs from Pakistan, Iran or China, which shouldn't be too hard if you look funny and wear a turbin, you don't have to be a dictator of some important country. Any old sink hole or banana republic will do and there's only so much TV. So we can always count on fanaticism and boredom.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Fanaticism and its Consequences
No human condition is more threatening to civilization than fanaticism. It reflects a terrible flaw in the human makeup and most of the mass oppressions, civil disturbances and collectivist ideologies which plague mankind can be traced to it. (Curiously, as to the causes of war and riots, the second most threatening condition is probably boredom, which in a way is almost the opposite of fanaticism).
Fanaticism should not be confused with principled advocacy. You can champion any cause with intensity without without becoming a fanatic. Fanaticism is extreme intolerance of dissenting views, an intention to supress them if possible, and the refusal to engage in rational debate. Reason never matters. The fanatic demands that everyone he controls or seeks to control --- frequently the entire human race --- adhere strictly and without question to a party line. Absolute conformity to ideological orthodoxy, which is the hallmark of fanaticism, is endemic to all collectivism, be it Naziism, Communism, Islamic extremism or radical-left American liberalism. Some socially conservative positions which are meritorious in and of themselves have been embraced by dangerous fanatics on the right. The fanatic of left or right insists that devient individualists be converted or actually destroyed with avalanches of propoganda or violence if nothing else works, and in many cases even when the cause or movement which the fanatic seeks to protect and advance is not seriously threatened. A despicable example of attempts at personal destruction is the left's campaign to destroy Sarah Palin. Though she has at present not announced her candidacy for President or any other office, the Left is engaged in a massive effort, costing their high priests millions of dollars, to find something, anything, suggestive of some wrongdoing even though there is no reason to suspect that there has been any. Also, if one believes in a benign existence in the after-life he will tolerate political ideologies and religions he does not like or share because he believes that the imbalances of life will be rectified in the end. But if this life is all their is, or if some putative god of the fanatic's invention or imagination so directs, two consequences follow: First, all departure from the fanatic's idea of perfection must be supressed now. We cannot wait, because the poor, the downtrodden or the spiritually deprived will die without hope except in compliance with the fanatic's self-made 'religion'. In other words unless the fanatic comes to the rescue with his coercion, rioting mobs and violence their lives will have been wasted. Second, we are told that we must live under some Command --- the inflexible directions of some book, some ayatolla, some dictator or code of conduct to which absolute obedience will be due. The fanatic always looks for a source of authority which cannot be questioned but can only be "interpreted" --- interpreted by him of course --- and that results in his refusal to entertain thoughts of alternatives. "So it is written, so it shall be done", said an Attila-like character in a movie. Once anyone begins to question the orthodoxy of the fanatic's movement or his heroes, and is allowed to continue doing so, the fabric of lock-step orthodoxy and obedience starts to unravel and the manifest nonsense and immorality of the movement begins to be apparent.
Thus some book, god or charismatic leader is substituted for universal principles of honor, decency, kindness, fairness and justice, except as defined and decreed by Command. The key is innerancy, the denial of any possible or permissable questioning of a Supreme Authority.
Corruptions, not real understanding, of the central messages of Christianity and Judaeism lead fanatics into the command-and-obey mentality. Judeao-Christianity properly understood and practiced requires the faithful to use their God-given intelligence. General principles are affirmed, of course, those which have always been recognized by decent people at all times --- rejection of theft, murder and adultery for example, or honoring ones parents, but the application of those principles in particular circumstances requires the application of reason and logic, and that is incompatible with fanaticism on any level. The New Testament does not record a single word spoken by Jesus which applies more than incidentally to the masses or to any collective, governmental or otherwise. All of His admonitions relate to actions and attitudes of individuals --- and ultimately to their salvation one by one. No group, race, tribe, nation or movement is "saved". Only individuals.
A church in Kansas produced a bunch of fanatics who went about obstructing the funerals of our men and women in uniform. Let us pray that this is not a forerunner of things to come. This is not the Christianity which any understanding Christian will recognize as the Gospel preached by Christ.
Fanaticism should not be confused with principled advocacy. You can champion any cause with intensity without without becoming a fanatic. Fanaticism is extreme intolerance of dissenting views, an intention to supress them if possible, and the refusal to engage in rational debate. Reason never matters. The fanatic demands that everyone he controls or seeks to control --- frequently the entire human race --- adhere strictly and without question to a party line. Absolute conformity to ideological orthodoxy, which is the hallmark of fanaticism, is endemic to all collectivism, be it Naziism, Communism, Islamic extremism or radical-left American liberalism. Some socially conservative positions which are meritorious in and of themselves have been embraced by dangerous fanatics on the right. The fanatic of left or right insists that devient individualists be converted or actually destroyed with avalanches of propoganda or violence if nothing else works, and in many cases even when the cause or movement which the fanatic seeks to protect and advance is not seriously threatened. A despicable example of attempts at personal destruction is the left's campaign to destroy Sarah Palin. Though she has at present not announced her candidacy for President or any other office, the Left is engaged in a massive effort, costing their high priests millions of dollars, to find something, anything, suggestive of some wrongdoing even though there is no reason to suspect that there has been any. Also, if one believes in a benign existence in the after-life he will tolerate political ideologies and religions he does not like or share because he believes that the imbalances of life will be rectified in the end. But if this life is all their is, or if some putative god of the fanatic's invention or imagination so directs, two consequences follow: First, all departure from the fanatic's idea of perfection must be supressed now. We cannot wait, because the poor, the downtrodden or the spiritually deprived will die without hope except in compliance with the fanatic's self-made 'religion'. In other words unless the fanatic comes to the rescue with his coercion, rioting mobs and violence their lives will have been wasted. Second, we are told that we must live under some Command --- the inflexible directions of some book, some ayatolla, some dictator or code of conduct to which absolute obedience will be due. The fanatic always looks for a source of authority which cannot be questioned but can only be "interpreted" --- interpreted by him of course --- and that results in his refusal to entertain thoughts of alternatives. "So it is written, so it shall be done", said an Attila-like character in a movie. Once anyone begins to question the orthodoxy of the fanatic's movement or his heroes, and is allowed to continue doing so, the fabric of lock-step orthodoxy and obedience starts to unravel and the manifest nonsense and immorality of the movement begins to be apparent.
Thus some book, god or charismatic leader is substituted for universal principles of honor, decency, kindness, fairness and justice, except as defined and decreed by Command. The key is innerancy, the denial of any possible or permissable questioning of a Supreme Authority.
Corruptions, not real understanding, of the central messages of Christianity and Judaeism lead fanatics into the command-and-obey mentality. Judeao-Christianity properly understood and practiced requires the faithful to use their God-given intelligence. General principles are affirmed, of course, those which have always been recognized by decent people at all times --- rejection of theft, murder and adultery for example, or honoring ones parents, but the application of those principles in particular circumstances requires the application of reason and logic, and that is incompatible with fanaticism on any level. The New Testament does not record a single word spoken by Jesus which applies more than incidentally to the masses or to any collective, governmental or otherwise. All of His admonitions relate to actions and attitudes of individuals --- and ultimately to their salvation one by one. No group, race, tribe, nation or movement is "saved". Only individuals.
A church in Kansas produced a bunch of fanatics who went about obstructing the funerals of our men and women in uniform. Let us pray that this is not a forerunner of things to come. This is not the Christianity which any understanding Christian will recognize as the Gospel preached by Christ.
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