Fanaticism is a choice. One chooses to place unswerving, unconditional loyalty in a leader, in a faith, a political movement, a sect, faction, creed, idea, ideology. Both the left and right are susceptible to fanaticism. Both may believe they have found the truth and therefore may set down the struggle to think clearly and question, and thus may finally find rest in their certitude.
Fanatics consider their full-hearted allegiance to their leader to be rational in that they will bend the world of empirical facts and evidence to suit their point-of-view.
Fanatics believe in dogma and thus are believers in absolutes. Dogma deflects doubt. It sneers at reflection. Fanatics revel in the company of other believers.
Their intellectual life is all zeroes and ones. Nuance, gray areas, subtlety, distinctions — these are suspect words to a fanatic, alien terms.
Their arrogance is inextricable from their fanaticism. These words are synonyms.
Fanaticism is inherent in cults. These words are synonyms.
Fanatics affirm their status as victims. It strengthens their certitude. It deepens their arrogance. “This was done to me” they will say, “by unbelievers, by the unclean, by enemies.”
“I know what they do,” they will say, “I understand. You do not.”
They have a rational belief in both the danger and inferiority of their enemies, and they only think in terms of enemies — Jews, Armenians, ‘wreckers’, ‘saboteurs’, Tutsis, ‘liberals’, blacks, n******, Indians, the Irish, Mexicans, infidels, heretics, wogs, women, c****, the impure — fanatics do not discriminate in who they persecute. They must persecute for someone else is always to blame.
They are always afraid.
They know how to hate.
Fanatics are utopians. They believe in the infinite perfectibility of ‘their people’. With ‘the leader’ in charge or with their ideology triumphant, conditions of life will improve. Without their success, catastrophe will ensue.
Fanatics become reflexively angry when questioned. They sputter and fume, cast out accusations, make up facts, repeat propaganda, depend upon scapegoats and stereotypes to carry their fear and anger. Their anger is their second nature.
They are natural inquisitors, every question an accusation: “Why are you not as pure as me?” They believe in the dialectic of zero and one: “If you support X, then you must love Y. If you do not believe Y, then you must believe X.”
They believe they know what is in your mind and heart without you ever speaking the words.
Fanatics are magicians. They swirl their capes, they chant their spells, they repeat their talking points and the dishonesty, corruption, cruelty and incompetence of their leader disappears like steam. Bodies disappear, devastation disappears, pandemics disappear, the humanity of any unlike them disappears.
Fanatics call forth brutes. The worst human beings rise to meet expressions and policies of cruelty. The sadists come forth. Their enablers come forth.
As if history has not recorded the horrors that flow from chosen blindness, from unreasoning fear, from the adulation of the powerful, from the designation of whole sets of human beings as criminals, terrorists, traitors, subhuman – untermensch, NH – no human involved, parasite, lazy, ape, kike, mudpeople. An endless list of the unworthy.
They believe they are good people. They would help strangers in need. They probably would. They love their children. They proclaim their goodness. They would also, as a friend pointed out, “put knives into the hands of maniacs and then gasp in surprise and horror when they start cutting throats. They would shout, “I never thought” and then “I am not responsible.”
