Extremism

If there can be said to be a “root” of evil look no further than extremism. 

Here are a few useful synonyms:

Radicalism
Fanaticism
Ultraism
Intolerance
Zealotry
Dogmatism

If there can be said to be a “hell” then it is certain that we humans create it.

Here a few antonyms:

Moderation
Centrism
Compromise
Tolerance
Nuance

I wonder whether extremism or its opposite would make for a more pleasant environment?

Extreme behaviour can perhaps be linked to our unfortunate evolution which has led to the desire to survive, usually by conquest and domination. Soon after the emergence of the first animal, the tooth and claw evolved. From there it was a short and seemingly inevitable step to the concentration camp, the atom bomb, ethnic cleansing and all the other fun of the human fair.

Tragically we seem ever closer to the ability to create a genuine utopia – the elimination of so much of what has made animal life unbearable over the many millennia of existence on this planet. Thanks to science we no longer have to rely on manna – we have the ability but apparently not the desire or determination to eliminate hunger. It is much the same with pain – in the developed world, anaesthetics and drugs can relieve us of the necessity of suffering.  Not so in the poorer quarters of the planet – sharing seems unaligned with our inherited behaviour.

We have begun to achieve feats only ever dreamed of by the alchemist – only recently some base element was transmuted briefly into gold. Unlimited free energy surrounds us to do our bidding. Even life itself may eventually be prolonged indefinitely.

And yet as a species we still cling to ways of behaviour bred into us and our very distant ancestors over billions of years. The worship of self, the desire to accumulate “matter” and keep it all for ourselves, despite the increasing clarity that matter is for all intents and purposes infinite. As of course is energy.

There is a social hierarchy in all animals it seems.  Few of them seem to lead to peaceful co-existence either inter-se or across different herds, tribes and species.  War and violence have dominated human history – the savage, far from being noble, was simply a less technically developed version of our current selves.

Weapons have existed since the very beginning of our existence, and with them  the same breed of brutal strongman we see today. Women seem rather better behaved and nicer people – the alpha female seems rare.

Only the strongest and toughest tend to get ahead in our world.  The mentally and physically tough, those with the will to succeed at all costs. And in general their aim is self aggrandisement and domination, extremism and a determination to insist that they and only they are “right”.

I’m sure I have ignored counter examples, but they seem few and far between. FDR in the 1930s seemed well motivated, but such exceptions are vanishingly rare. And in any event I don’t know enough about the man or the era.

In general it is the more moderate and tolerant human who seems to want what is good for all, but such people don’t normally seem to possess the desire to climb the greasy pole. Hardly surprising, since climbing to the top inevitably involves dedicated aggression and single minded concern for self above others.

Is there any answer to our plight? Should there be? Is there anything to be done?

My thought is that only very gradual change could ever work and that it would have to be voluntary.

Any sudden, dramatic and extreme change always brings out the worst in our species.

Was Marx a well meaning cove? Or just another flawed human with no real desire to heal? Whatever he was, no good has flowed from his works. He spawned some of the worst monsters and psychopaths in history.

What good can ever come from violent revolution?

There have been exceptionally decent people who have popped up throughout history, offering some rather less offensive solutions.  But few have listened to them, especially the monsters.

And of those who did listen, some created monstrosity and beastliness wholly out of line with the good intentions of the original idea.

It is a sad paradox that far from creating a better world, religion has thrown up extremist monsters just as intent on conquest, wealth and domination as their secular counterparts.

Sad that we humans have not listened to the good words of the well meaning folk who came up with the original thoughts. Tragic that such “faith” has been used to support war and terrorism rather than peace or harmony.

From the insane Christian right to the equally unbalanced madness of the other Abrahamic faiths, intolerance and violence make a mockery of the basic decency the founders envisaged.

Has any other religion fared any better? I’m not sure.

We don’t need it. Any of it. All we need is to change our own behaviour and renounce our genetic inheritance.

Will it ever happen? I think it could – slowly and over time if more and more of us caught up with the undeniable fact that violence and greed do not bring anything we should or could want.

Easy to talk. Words are cheap. But it must inevitably be a personal choice to “smite the mote”.   I suspect that a better society can only emerge if each of us concentrates on getting his own life in order rather than bemoaning the acts of insanity perpetrated by others. 

What drives the monster? Are we ourselves monsters in the making, given the right circumstances? Highly probably.

Regrettably the solution is as extreme and radical as all the abhorrent behaviour I have described: just drop it. Stop. Down tools.  Turn our own lives around for the better. Use passive resistance.

Watch our own thoughts like a hawk. Put an end to our own insecurities and greed and fear. Refuse to compete – instead we should cooperate and ignore the ghastly throat cutting capitalists.

Feed the poor and hungry, treat the sick. House people properly, educate them well.  Ignore our own fears and abandon our seemingly inbuilt desire to destroy others in an insane drive for the material.

Will it ever happen? Well it certainly could – the way is clear enough. The means are there, the intelligence, the technology, the resources. The ideas, the blueprints.

I hope a silent, slow and non-violent revolution comes about.  But as I have learnt over my many decades in the financial markets, prediction is futile. Perhaps we will improve, perhaps we won’t.

There again it would be little real surprise were we to be wiped out by some catastrophe, man made or otherwise.

For my own peace of mind, I choose not to worry about it.