Fanaticism

[WalterTrull]

We seem to be prone to fanaticism. I'm not sure why. Religious is not the only type, just one of many. I suppose it's akin to addiction. Can we override these with the intellect? Sometimes I'd guess. More likely not just with the intellect, but with help from others. Fanaticism is scary though, so I'm in awe of the helpers. Anybody here climb out of that pit or help someone else?

 

[epronovost]

One of my great childhood friend died due to religious fanaticism. The only problem is that he probably killed a bunch of people before or at the very least helped a lot in the process of killing a lot of innocent people.

 

[halbhh]

We seem to be prone to fanaticism. I'm not sure why. Religious is not the only type, just one of many. I suppose it's akin to addiction. Can we override these with the intellect? Sometimes I'd guess. More likely not just with the intellect, but with help from others. Fanaticism is scary though, so I'm in awe of the helpers. Anybody here climb out of that pit or help someone else?

Though we live in a very complex world, most people wish they could have control over their lives, which are going poorly (!) (often through little fault of their own where they are like wood chips swept up in a storm), and ideological fanaticism is a way to feel as if one has figured out what matters to set things better.

 

[WalterTrull]

One of my great childhood friend died due to religious fanaticism. The only problem is that he probably killed a bunch of people before or at the very least helped a lot in the process of killing a lot of innocent people.

Wish I had something clever or profound to say about that. I don't. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Nakosis]

We seem to be prone to fanaticism. I'm not sure why. Religious is not the only type, just one of many. I suppose it's akin to addiction. Can we override these with the intellect? Sometimes I'd guess. More likely not just with the intellect, but with help from others. Fanaticism is scary though, so I'm in awe of the helpers. Anybody here climb out of that pit or help someone else?

I wonder if we are a victim of our environment.

I don't see myself as a fanatic. I don't recall my parents being fanatical about anything. Haven't been around fanatical people.

So luck? I did make an active choice not to be around fanatics. If I had been, maybe I'd be a fanatic too.
Well, now I avoid fanatics because I find them annoying.

If not for the grace of.. um "God", there go I?

I've seen really smart people do really stupid things. I don't see intellect alone being able to overpower this.

Helpers? I suspect the best helpers would be those who were past fanatics and for whatever reason became non-fanatic. Whatever events caused them to begin to question their fanaticism. Not having been a fanatic, not having been exposed to it, I don't think I'd be much help.

 

[SigurdReginson]

I climbed out of my own four walled world built around faith... It was a hard thing to do. It took a lot of effort on my part to try and rip out the programming that had taken place in my life for 30 years. Thankfully most of it's gone, but every once in a while I'll have a thought that makes me think "Where'd that come from?"

People can't climb out of that pit if they don't take the first steps themselves. Everyone has different reasons for why they take those steps, though. I began to recognize that I was being intellectually dishonest with myself, so I explored the reasoning, and it led me down a rabit hole that took me years to get to where I am now. It wasn't the first time I saw that intellectual dishonesty within myself then, but in the past I just pushed it aside and tried to forget about it. In retrospect, I'm glad I finally acted, because I could have gone on the rest of my life that way... It was a very unhappy way to be.

 

[SigurdReginson]

I've seen really smart people do really stupid things. I don't see intellect alone being able to overpower this.

Some of the most intelligent people can be some of the most fanatical. Sometimes It takes some serious mental gymnastics to get that way.