Fanatics, ideologues, and absolutists are humanity's greatest scourge. Whether they're the leaders or the followers, fanatics are people who indulge in a heady, intoxicating, and toxic concoction of self-affirming, know-it-all confidence that they have unique access to absolute truths, truths so perfect that they have to impose them on everyone.

The absolute truths that fanatics latch onto might be religious or political, right-wing or left-wing, Christian or Islamic, libertarian or communist, new age spiritual or old-time religious. It's not what they believe that makes them fanatics but how they believe it - that they have the final word, no need to consider further evidence, and no need to ever wonder or doubt themselves again.

Fanaticism is a drug. Let loose on society it's like crack cocaine or alcohol only worse. Fanatics drive through life like alcoholics driving under the influence. They think they're perfectly fine driving. They kill innocent bystanders, sometimes by the thousands or millions.



We've learned though, that treating alcoholics as criminals doesn't help us or them. Alcoholics Anonymous has been so successful in part because it gives the addict a graceful way out of the corner he or she is painted into. It's hard to kick a drug if sobriety means admitting that you're a vile person through and through. Shaming the addict can make him dig in his heels. It's easier to kick it if you declare that you've become host to a virulent disease that can attack any of us. No one is exempt from the risk. It's not your fault, but it is your responsibility to kick it.

What's needed is an AA-style safe haven for recovering political and religious fanatics, ideologues and absolutists. Its message is, "Yes, you're a wreck and have done real damage. But don't beat yourself up over it. Like so many of us, you became host to a powerful parasite that mutates quickly and has taken over minds throughout human history. Don't blame yourself. You are not alone. Join us. Together we can lick this thing."



Here's a rough draft for the 12 Steps of Fanatics Anonymous:

We admitted we were powerless over fanaticism-that our lives had become unmanageable.
Came to believe that Reason, a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of Reason.
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Admitted to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Were entirely ready to have Reason remove all these defects of character.
Humbly invoked reason to remove our shortcomings.
Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

Sought through inquiry, debate, conversation, curiosity, and doubt to improve our conscious contact with Reason seeking for better understanding of the human tension between what we want to believe and what's most likely to be true.

Having had an awakening to Reason as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to fanatics of all kinds, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Of course, the peculiar move here is replacing god with Reason, and more peculiar perhaps to repurpose the AA model for fanatics anonymous, what with AA's surrender to god's will, the most notorious excuse for fanaticism in fanaticism's long and sordid history.

And what is Reason anyway?

Reason is nature's gift to humankind and to the humanitarian impulse. It's also called rationality, which comes from the same root as ratio, to compare, discern, evaluate, judging carefully and humbly in our efforts to find the better bets on how to live.

Reason is also related to logos, a word with diverse implications over the millennia but related to language, and logic, uniquely human gifts for our ongoing effort to understand the true ways of the world.

Ongoing - that's how science practices reason. Where fanatics say "I reasoned once, came to the absolute truth and don't have to reason again," science, a practical practice we can learn to apply well beyond the lab, admits that there's no last word, just today's best guesses, to be improved upon through ongoing inquiry.



Sustained reason is just the hard work that addiction to fanaticism frees us from. No wonder fanaticism is so intoxicating. Being a know-it-all provides such powerful pain relief. Reason is a much harder master than god. Humbling ourselves to it is painful.

No wonder so many of us fall off the wagon.

What do we mean when we say that someone is a fanatic? One variety of fanaticism has to do with religious or political views. This sort of fanatic is a person who is so sure that his or her views are the truth that they see anyone who holds different views as evil or inhuman.

But we could also say, for example, that Bob is a "snow-boarding fanatic." In this case we may mean the label as almost a compliment. We simply mean that Bob loves to snow-board so much that he would rather do this than just about anything else.

A third sort of fanaticism is usually designated by using the shorted form of the word, that being "fan." We could say that Jillian is a Justin Bieber fan, and what we would mean is that Jillian not only loves the music of Justin Bieber but that she is completely fascinated by him as a person, that she may have started eating his favorite foods and that she fantasizes about meeting him.



Most people regard the first form of fanaticism as potentially dangerous, and the other forms as harmless, if sometimes a little over the top. But the fact that we use the same word for all of these behaviors also suggests that they share something in common-a person becomes involved in something to a degree that is so excessive that it pushes other ideas or activities out of the way. Fanaticism always entails a lack of balance in a person's life and thoughts.



In this, fanaticism seems like addiction. By making that comparison, I don't mean to imply that addiction is equivalent to being a Lady Gaga fan. Addiction is a life-threatening problem that causes untold suffering in our society. But it is also true that addiction is similar to fanaticism. Addiction too entails a lack of balance, a situation in which one substance or activity crowds the rest of a person's life out of the way.

In fact, some addiction experts (such as Bruce Alexander) define addiction in this way: An addict is likely to be a person who is adrift from their moorings in the values of their community and as a result they are desperate for self-definition. Thus, like the fanatic, the addict loses his or her balance and becomes focused on just one desire. And that desire can become like a cancer, spreading and taking over a person's life.

This brings me to the point of this post: Why is it that addiction and fanaticism (including fandom) are so widespread in our time? I think Alexander comes as close as anyone does to answering that question: Just as fanaticism and addiction grow by crowding out a person's other values, a person who is firmly committed to ta braod range of personal values is better able to resist addiction or fanaticism. In its relentless pursuit of economic growth and profit, contemporary society erodes people's commitments to their families, their traditions, their communities, and their ideals. And in so doing, our society leaves people more vulnerable to addiction and fanaticism.



Fanatics are gaining power and legitimacy. Some countries are already dominated by fanaticism - think North Korea, Syria and Myanmar. Some are flirting with it - think Hungary, Poland and the United States. Some countries are repeated victims of fanatic terrorists - think England, France and Spain.

The United States has always had its share of fanatical groups, but never before Trump have they felt so emboldened or been given such legitimization from the White House.

We will be helpless to deal with rising fanaticism if we fail to understand its political, economic, religious and psychological roots. I have invited Andre Haynal, a world's expert on fanaticism, to help explain it to us.



Professor Haynal has been a close observer of fanaticism for 80 years. He vividly remembers Hitler's terrifying speech exulting in Germany's takeover of Austria and lived under three different fanatic regimes in Hungary (the Nazis, the Communists, the Hungarian Fascists). He has studied with concern the Trump phenomena in the U.S. and the growth of fanatic nationalism in many European countries.

Professor Haynal is the former Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Geneva; former President of the Swiss Psychoanalytic Association; and the author of "Encounters with The Irrational". He is assisted by his wife Veronique Haynal, a psychotherapist in Geneva, who shares fully in all his work.

The Haynals write: "The dictionary defines a fanatic as someone with excessive and single minded zeal. Synonyms include extremist, radical, chauvinist, militant, bigot, sectarian, diehard, and dogmatist. 'Fanatic' is derived from a Latin word that described possession by a god or demon. In current usage, it more often describes possession by a cause or belief system- religious, nationalist, racist, political, or ideological.

In Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift describes the bitter and bloody war between fanatic Lilliputians and equally fanatic Blefuscudians- over the proper way to crack open a soft-boiled egg. Eleven thousand people chose death over the dishonor of cracking open the egg in the middle or on the narrow end.



Many factors are promoting fanaticism:

Rapid societal change- in technology, economic opportunity, living arrangements, traditions, ideals, values, expectations

Leaving people feeling disconnected from the past, frightened in the present, not in control of the future

Fierce job competition from computers and multinational outsourcing

Feeling that others (especially minorities and immigrants) are stealing status and resources

Comfort in belonging to a closed community of like-minded believers

Socio-economic deprivation and inequality

A charismatic leader who confidently comes forth with grand promises offering prosperity, security, and stability



Why is fanaticism on the rise now?

Crushing overpopulation - the world census, 1 billion in 1800, is now 7.6 billion and growing at the astounding rate 1 billion people every 12 years

War, famine, and drought- resulting in massive migrations

Political turmoil and societal instability

Weakening of previous consensus cultural norms

Dissolution of family ties

Increasing concentration of wealth

Religious tensions

Humans are less necessary as producers and consumers in a world increasingly dominated by computers



What are the characteristics of fanatic leaders?

They may differ widely in intelligence, personality and goals - but all use similar methods to turn followers into fanatics.

They convey a simple message with powerful conviction and constant propaganda.

They deny truth, manipulate objective reality, distort facts, and create fake news.

They are intolerant of contradiction and destroy opposition.

They delegitimize and censor alternative views.

They divide issues and people sharply into good and bad.

They create scapegoats and targets of anger.



Fanatical followers need:

A simple answer, black or white
To be protected against imagined 'evil'
A sense of community
To feel important
To feel better than the 'others'
To secure special rights and resources, in this life or in the next
Redemption
What can reduce fanaticism?

Empowering the people; giving them a sense of responsibility for the community; educating them to distinguish real facts from surreptitious falsities; encouraging them to see through propaganda on talk radio, social media and the Rupert Murdoch fake news outlets.

Fanaticism thrives where there is deprivation and inequality. If we hope to reduce it, we must make the world a better place - reducing inequality, controlling population, and ensuring a life worth living."



Although individual fanaticism is probably as old as human psychology, institutionalized fanaticism is a creature of the agricultural revolution. The clear delineation of a powerful, rich, ruling class from their chattel subjects depended upon the religious doctrines that promoted fanatic devotion to defined leaders. Religious movements have ever since been the cause of, or excuse for, much of the world's wars and prejudice. In the last few centuries, fanatic nationalist and political ideologies have added to fanatic religion as a cause of war and terrorism.

The seeming victory of rational thought over religious doctrine during the 18th century Enlightenment promised a possible reduction in the power of fanaticism. But the Reign of Terror ending the French Revolution proved that secular fanaticism could be quite as deadly as religious.


The Internet has been a great disappointment. Hailed as a promoter of knowledge and democracy, it has instead become more a propagator of propaganda.

During our long history as a nation, we have almost always been much better as a people than we are today. I have faith we will again become much better as a people when the Trump blight is overcome.

There will always be bigots- racists, misogynists, anti-gays, anti-migrants, and anti-Semites. But they must be contained- never again encouraged and exploited.