Political hatred is just one among many extremisms that have become the plague of our generation.
Loyalty to tribe, religion, race, national origin, extreme liberal chaos, extreme oppressive totalitarianism, etc. is a false sense of devotion to the banners of some group. It is this very commitment to the external formulations of order that tends toward corruption (extremism). The cost is a principled identity of self.
Since it is personality based, it doesn't really matter which form of extremism one buys into, if it were not one, it would be another... may as well just pick a color or pick a club.
When the internal locus of fidelity is to intelligent and principled communion with others for the sake of common humanity, the likelihood of creating chasms between groups is reduced; just as it is widened by expressions of devotion to less deserving tenets.
An extremist within your own identity sphere or an opposing one is a corrupter of the principles upon which you stand.
So when you declare war on extremism you have an enemy within (your realms of identity) as well as without. Geopolitical borders, ideological group membership, etc. no longer carry the standard. How then do you identify your brethren in the cause? And, of equal importance, how do you define your enemy, and do you have the courage to do so? |
