The eminent French Philosopher Voltaire had said that "Fanatics are the plague of the soul." And this has been tragically proven over the centuries.
Primitives, out of ignorance and fear or even cunning to control the group etc., invented "gods" idols, the sun, the moon, stars, elephants, crocodiles, etc. objects or animals and imposed them with fanaticism. Some ended up cannibals. Or is it true that "fear guards the ballast?" Subsequently, due to various environmental changes, evolution and contact with other groups, habits have changed, but fanaticism is present to satisfy the "authorities".
Barbarian tribes like the Mongols etc. they imposed fanaticism on their people for purely imperialistic, conquering and religious and socio-political reasons and committed genocides. But other non-"barbarian" tribes also committed the same out of fanaticism.
In the Middle Ages, fanaticism in red with the Inquisition, the Crusades, etc. and its countless victims in the name of Christ, who crucified Him again!
At the individual level, fanaticism is mainly due to the upbringing of family, school, etc., but also to phobias, to physical or mental pathological disadvantages, etc. Perhaps the proverb applies to the hunchback, who was asked if he would like to become upright, healthy like others, or for others to become like him, and he preferred the latter! Also, due to superstition, sexual perversion or cunning, men in South Africa believe that if they associate with virgins, they will be cured of HIV, and so they persuade, pay, blackmail or rape virgin girls and spread their disease to millions.
Fanaticism, on a collective level, political or religious, can also be ideological, due to education, but also due to instincts, fear, obsessions, basic needs, immediate environment, etc. motivation, where the person becomes addicted and does not operate rationally. It may also be due to financial dependence.
From birth, man is a tabula raza-white board- and everything written by parents, teachers, etc. applies. Also, man is an imitative animal and therefore imitates what he sees or hears, especially in the modern era when the media and cinema, with the subculture and violence they project, have a terrible influence especially on young people, they are fanatical and we see the results every day of corruption, child violence, infanticide, femicide, catastrophism.
When people attack with suicide bombs or vehicles etc. in various countries or recently the tragedy in Brandenburg and they are killing other "enemies", this is basically due to the brainwashing they have undergone by fanatical groups due to religious or political etc. factors or pathological causes. And such tragedies reproduce the fanaticism exploited by extreme partisans and others. dark circles and in whom they invest their plans. After all, many of them, who "get high" and commit terrible things, believe that with their actions they will go to their own "paradise" where virgins, luxury foods, etc. will be waiting for them. So, is it possible for them to miss such a unique opportunity? But the question is why their bosses, their mentors, do not do the same, but choose "victim" bodies? In ancient times kings, princes, etc. leaders went to the Front Line and fought defensively or offensively and set an example for their subjects. Later the data changed also due to the shocking evolution of weapon systems, where the distances etc. are annihilated, but fanaticism does not disappear, but increases dangerously, causing reactions from other fanatical groups anxious to gain power, etc.
The tragic irony is that bigoted political and religious leaders are corrupted by power and money and gain the illusion that they replace "god" and are eternal. If they visited a cemetery they might change their minds. And since they think they will go to their own "paradise", where, as mentioned above, they will have virgins and ultra-luxurious living, etc., why don't they fanaticize and murder, etc. their "enemies" and even kill themselves?
Religious fanaticism is mainly due to dogmatism imposed by religious leaders. And isn't it tragic that for thousands of years the religious leaders, "God's representatives", have not agreed on who the true God is and that there are tragic murderous conflicts because of them?
In the 50s, an important book The Religions of Man, later renamed World Religions, was published in the USA where Theologians and Sociologists came to the conclusion that all religions, proportionally, agree at the base of the pyramid, on love, solidarity, etc., but disagree at the top, on doctrines, and here is the tragic result. And the doctrines, the fanaticism because of them, is not only ideological, but more a matter of power and wealth. Will religious leaders abandon secular power, with so many material goods offered by competition and formalism? That is why religions imposed dogmas and formalism. Regarding Christians, the great Tolstoy had said: "When the Christian Church acquired worldly power, it lost its essence." And the great American Professor William Sumner wrote: “Do you want war? You feed the people with doctrines." And the doctrines gave rise to fanaticism from which mankind suffers. Fanaticism in civil conflicts, wars, etc., stems mainly from insecurity, fear for survival.
In recent history, fanaticism e.g. of Nazis, Fascists and Militarists, ranging from their power-hungry leadership and the horribly oppressive behavior of rigid, inhuman dark security groups such as the dreaded SS who ruthlessly murdered any political opponent or dissident. And although senior officers etc. in Germany they tried to get rid of the inhuman Nazi regime, they failed with the known result. And if it wasn't for the Greek National Resistance, General Winter, etc., the neo-barbaric Nazis would have conquered the world and people would have been used as test animals for the creation of the "superior" race.
Today the tragedies of Ukraine, the Middle East, with about a million human victims, what are they due to? They are due to the fanaticism of certain corrupt leaders (neo-Nazi etc. crypto-fascist, neo-imperialist circles, e.g. Turkey) who depend on rigid profit-making conclaves (production and trading of weapons systems, raw materials, stock exchanges, guilds, etc. .) and people have lost their value in the face of profits! What decadence, what inhumanity! Back to Babel! The universal "Ark" takes in water, sinks!
But, by all means, we must clarify that there is also justified "fanaticism", the "fanaticism" of the righteous defenders! When states are subjected to illegal, unprovoked attacks and their national independence and integrity are at risk or their democratic regime is at risk. They have no other choice. They are "fanatic" against horse fanaticism! The eternal vicious circle in which the warmongering circles invest their immoral and illegal interests. There is, of course, the idealistic approach that is characteristically expressed by the late Panagiotis Kanellopoulos who said: "I am not fanatical. And if I ever become fanatical, it will be against fanaticism."
Thousands of years, supposedly civilization, humanity, democracy etc. values and virtues would have been promoted and peace etc., we see the opposite. Wars, wars. Cannibalism! And all this because of political, religious and commercial-profit fanaticism that has infiltrated every activity, commercial, artistic, academic, scientific, sports, etc. Where did the man-monsters, the terrorists, come from? Who, how, who recruited them, trained them, etc. so that they commit the most heinous crimes? And the "democratic" leaders watch with cynical indifference the horrific massacres from the screen as if they were movie plays. The fanaticism of indifference, of idiocy.
Also, fanaticism is the last defense of irrelevant and half-educated, commonly clever people. They even insist on known incorrect facts and argue for the sake of arguing so as not to be seen as disadvantaged!
For all of the above, the system of rigid competition that cannot survive without rivals and enemies is responsible for all of the above, and thus invents them, provokes them, creates them by addicting people to extreme individualism, worthlessness, cynical indifference to the commons, to privatization (from there comes the Anglo-French term idiot and in any form of violence, entanglement, corruption, fanaticism for the strongest to prevail. Darwin is vindicated!
If the system does not change, to become more humane, to have equality in the sense of social justice, meritocracy, to eliminate dark guilds, hunger, poverty, social injustice, racism, etc. and for the global social "Gospel" the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights to prevail, and for war to be prohibited in general, for the UN and its Organizations to be strengthened so that the problems are solved at their root, the dramas and tragedies will continue. Why did collective efforts at the ICC and the UN to ban war fail? Would the inhumane, warmongering circuits, sperating for nothing, give up their untold profits in the face of thousands or millions of human victims? SUPPLY! MATERIAL INSANITY! That's why they cultivate and promote fanaticism! And as long as there are fanatical individuals or fanatical groups who will sacrifice themselves for their ideas, there will be no peace and security, but instead fear, insecurity, terror will prevail everywhere. Vicious circle! And another thing that the inhuman authoritarian circles don't want.
The great French Historian-Philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville he said: "Man seeks equality in freedom, and when he does not find it, he seeks it in slavery, see totalitarian regimes.
And we repeat that if Planet Earth is destroyed, it will not be the ozone hole that is to blame, but the "hole" in the consciousness of especially the Powerful, in this case the fanatics.
SOS: Fanaticism threatens humanity!
Democrats of the world unite/ break free from your bonds!
