[analphilosopher] Keith Burgess-Jackson: Richard John Neuhaus on Fanaticism

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Posted by Keith Burgess-Jackson:
Richard John Neuhaus on Fanaticism
http://www.analphilosopher.com/posts/1154563730.shtml


   In his extended introduction to From the Gulag to the Killing Fields,
   [Paul] Hollander cites a study by the late Edward Shils of the
   similarities in beliefs and attitudes between the extreme ideological
   right and the extreme ideological left. His examples are drawn from
   Nazism and Communism, but the analysis applies to situations of
   ideological and political polarization more generally. Shils focuses
   on these characteristics: (1) Extreme hostility to âoutgroups.â You
   are either for us or against us. Dialogue or civil conversation with
   the âenemyâ is betrayal. (2) Complete submissiveness to âingroups.â
   Our party and its leaders are to be supported without question.
   Criticism of our side is breaking ranks, and breaking ranks is
   treason. (3) All relationships are subordinated to the criterion of
   what will advance the âcause.â (4) The most important thing to know
   about the world is that it is divided by the conflict between them and
   us. (5) Purely theoretical ideas that do not clearly serve the cause
   are to be repressed. (6) The expression of sentiment is a sign of
   weakness. (7) We and our group can survive only by the manipulation of
   others, who are there to be manipulated. (8) The triumph of the cause
   will result in a harmonious world without conflict. There are some
   differences between causes, of course, s there were significant
   differences between Nazism and Communism. For all the talk about our
   polarized circumstancesâabout culture wars, the religious right, and
   threats posed by theocrats and secular humanistsâwe are far from those
   forms of political madness. Yet we deceive ourselves if we deny the
   possibility of being overwhelmed by fanaticism. It can happen here.
   Fanaticism, it is worth remembering, comes from fanum, referring to
   the pagan temple in which people worked themselves into an orgy of
   frenzied ecstasy. There is a seductive pleasure in hating, and hating
   absolutely. To judge by some of the vicious messages received in this
   officeâand, I am sure, received also by those on the other side of
   controverted issuesâmore people than we would like to think are
   susceptible to that seduction. Securing the bonds of civility within
   which we engage our differences is a never-ending task.