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Joe Whittaker's avatar

Another dynamite essay, Steve, thank you. There's a lot to unpack and think about, as you said. Fanaticism is something I encountered a lot in my former career, and the literature I studied on the problem was directed to different ends obviously.

You make a lot of important points on your own I want to consider at length. I thought of a line from an old movie -- I think it was Sean Connery who said it -- "the line between faith and frenzy is all too brief."

My experiences in the field were that none of the fanatics I encountered were ever truly dedicated to something they had perfect confidence in. Nobody is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise and set tomorrow, for instance. "When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, it's always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt."(R. Pirsig, ZAMM, 1970)

That was certainly true in my experiences in the Middle East, Ottawa, London, Paris, and Washington DC.

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hogtowner's avatar

Brilliant. I just subscribed.

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