How to Cure a Fanatic: The Long and Hard Road to Peace
How I woke up from the deep slumber of fanaticism. And how you can to.
I.
In the aftermath of October 7, fear entered my system. Fear of my neighbor, fear for my future, fear for my life.
Chants for killing, death and violence took over the streets of the West. The symbolism of death and destruction re-appeared at every corner and the whole world was reminded of the dark side to human beings. Todestrieb, the drive towards death, expressed through aggression, compulsion and self destructiveness. Evil is, as we rediscovered, not only part of an individual development, but deeply embedded in society.
Freud’s words in an interview on World War 1 echo in my mind:
These are indeed terrible times. It seems to us as though never before has an event destroyed so many precious possessions of our common humanity, confused so many of the clearest intellects, debased the highest so thoroughly. This war has let the primeval man within us into the light.1
There was a sense of despair. Why continue acting like all is fine? Why continue going to work, finish education, make a family, raise kids, be happy, if history is just a never ending cycle of repeated despair?
Turning Inward
Facing the impermanence and uncertainty of the situation, I tried to find security. Give me anything, I thought, but make it give me security. Make it feel right. Make it feel like I’m doing something meaningful. Give me strength and hope to do things right!
Searching for security, my first instinct was to seek it in what is eternal, unchanging, static, and controllable: the inner world of beliefs, opinion and judgement. Things that are not real like these letters on the screen, but otherworldly, profoundly real in as they guide each ones behavior.
Experience becomes memory.
Memory becomes knowledge.
Knowledge becomes ideas.
Ideas become concepts.
Concepts become beliefs.
Beliefs become judgements.
Judgements become actions.
Actions become patterns.
And patterns become our daily lives.
In his book The Potent Self (1985), Moshé Feldenkrais observes, that “Each person explores his world to find those conditions into which that pattern fits, just like the duck that heads for water. One cannot live in conditions for which one has not elaborated the necessary means of reaction and over which one therefore lacks the necessary means of influence.”
I like this quote because it accurately fits my belief, that humans rather avoid changing their patterns of behavior and gravitate towards environments where our internal patterns of behavior are validated rather than challenged. At the same time, it grants often unseen option of elaborating the necessary means of reaction. But let’s continue for now.
Egregore or Groupthink
In occultism, there is a concept called an egregor, which, like many religious and esoteric ideas, describes an observed phenomenon of human behavior. It touches the human tendency to loose its humanness when part of a crowd. In the secular world, this phenomenon is known as Groupthink or Mass Consciousness.2
Imagine a pendulum. It has no other purpose but to swing. In itself, it is neither good nor evil, it just is. When a person offers a thought, or exerts their will in a specific direction, the pendulum starts to swing. The more people concentrate their energy in one direction, the harder the pendulum swings and the more captivating the thing the pendulum represents will become.
If the swing gets big enough, it raises the potential to enhance the energy of its members, giving its members the ecstatic feeling of community and individual purpose. But in exchange, it may start exerting its will back onto the group, shaping decisions, influencing values, and eventually acting out through its members, making them drive trucks into Christmas markets or give shelter to the homeless.
I have observed this behavior many, many times over the course of my life, from harmless trends like the Ice Bucket Challenge to political movements like Kony 2012 or Black Lives Matter.
It starts with an easy action that seems inconsequential, like posting a black square on Instagram to show solidarity with a movement, or wearing a particular piece of clothing that is supposed to signal virtue. Yet over time, participants may find themselves pulled deeper into a collectivist mindset, leading individuals to act against their own interests and values for the sake of the group. These beliefs then lead to patterns of behavior that are not the product of careful consideration, but simply absorbed through mimesis.3
Me against the world
Something similar was happening to me. Searching for security through information, I picked up compulsively scrolling through news feeds, in search of answers and to stay informed.
But the more my inner world solidified through mindless and repetitive actions, the more my outer world began to shrink. What started as an attempt to feel secure, only made me grow distrustful of others and quick to anger over small disagreements. Instead of bringing clarity or peace, my beliefs became walls of separation, creating conflict where there had been none.
It felt like it was me against the world. Conversations with friends turned into debates; shared moments became battlegrounds for ideology. My relationships began to deteriorate under the weight of my growing antagonism, and my mental and physical health followed.
Although surrounded by people, I felt increasingly alone; trapped in a cycle of isolation that I couldn’t seem to break. The very things I thought would empower me, were now consuming me.
At this point, one of two things could happen
Some charismatic figure would appear in the midst of my despair and provide me with easy answers that simply feel good to have. This charismatic figure would paint me a picture of good and evil, of a metaphysical fight that goes on for ages, and that we now have to assemble to fight against, because the time has finally come. This charismatic figure would make me a pawn in his own game. A resource for his own motives. I seriously recommend watching Die Welle or Fight Club to get a feel for what I’m saying here.
Someone without answers would come and tell me to stay in this discomfort. To not look away but face it. To not look for easy answers. To not fall into black and white thinking. To always remember, that humanity is one. That love is love and pain is pain, not my pain or your pain but pain–our pain.
May everyone be happy.
May everyone be free of disease.
May auspiciousness be seen everywhere.
May suffering belong to no-one.
II.
“Surely, a man who is understanding life does not want beliefs. A man who loves has no beliefs–he loves. It is the man who is consumed by the intellect who has beliefs, because intellect is always seeking security, protection; it is always avoiding danger and therefore it builds ideas, beliefs, ideals behind which it can take shelter.”4
—
“But it is only in freedom that you can find out what is true, […], not through any belief, because your very belief projects […] what you think ought to be true”5
One day I was at a local bookstore and something made me pick up the book How to Cure a Fanatic (2004) by Amos Oz. In it you can find the following excerpt, that I really, really urge you to read in full (it’s hilarious):
Reading this, I proclaimed joyfully:
“I’m a fanatic! I’m a fanatic!”
Maybe it was the humor, maybe it was the urgency, or maybe it was because he was literally talking about the conflict that has been the source of my agony, but for the first time – in a long time – I actually felt seen, I felt understood. I didn’t know the cure, but I finally knew the disease. The disease was fanaticism.
fanatic
[ fuh-nat-ik ]
noun
a person with an extreme and uncritical enthusiasm or zeal, as in religion or politics.
Possible Senses and Usages:
Someone who is excessively devoted to a particular ideology or belief.
Individuals who show extreme enthusiasm or support for a specific sports team or entertainer.
A person with an intense dedication to a particular hobby, interest, or activity.
Individuals strongly committed to a specific cause or mission.
Sample Sentences:
She became a fanaticist of environmental preservation, dedicating her life to saving the planet.
The soccer fanaticists cheered loudly for their favorite team, chanting their names throughout the match.
As a film fanaticist, he spent every weekend at the cinema, watching multiple movies.
The politician gained support from a group of fanaticists who believed deeply in his proposed reforms.
Synonyms: militant, hothead, bigot, zealot
Synonym Study
Fanatic, zealot, militant, devotee refer to persons showing more than ordinary support for, adherence to, or interest in a cause, point of view, or activity. Fanatic and zealot both suggest excessive or overweening devotion to a cause or belief. Fanatic further implies unbalanced or obsessive behavior: a wild-eyed fanatic. Zealot, only slightly less unfavorable in implication than fanatic, implies single-minded partisanship. Militant stresses vigorous, aggressive support for or opposition to a plan or ideal and suggests a combative stance. All suggest the exclusion of other interests or possible points of view.6
III.
I have come to think that fanaticism is a skill issue. It is the inability to comprehend complexity, paired with the lack of empathy; an unwillingness to understand others.
Fanaticism often involves a desire to engage with complex topics, whether to signal intelligence, virtue, or depth, but without the necessary literacy or critical thinking skills to do so effectively. Most importantly, it reflects an absence of the humility required to approach complex topics like history, religion, philosophy, and politics.
In the book Amos Oz mentions three things to combat fanaticism7
Art and Literature. “I wish I could simply prescribe: read literature and you will be cured of your fanaticism. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Unfortunately, many poems, many stories and dramas throughout history have been used to inflate hatred and to inflate nationalistic self-righteousness. Yet, there are certain works of literature which, I believe can help up to a point. They cannot work miracles, but they can help.”
Humour. “A sense of humour is a great cure. I have never once in my life seen a fanatic with a sense of humour, nor have I ever seen a person with a sense of humour becoming a fanatic, unless he or she has lost that sense of humour.”
Tolerance for Amibguity. “The ability to exist within open-ended situations, even to learn how to enjoy open-ended situations, to learn to enjoy diversity.”
And Imagination.
On the topic of imagination, he exemplifies it in the following, rather brutal, story:
But not without the warning, that…
„Be very careful, fanaticism is extremely catching, more contagious than any virus. You might easily contract fanaticism even as you are trying to defeat it or combat it. You have only to read a newspaper, or watch the television news, and you can see how easily people may become anti-fanatic fanatics, anti-fundamentalist zealots, anti-Jihad crusaders.“
Conclusion
without the loving-kindness of the people close to me,
who have patiently listened and tolerated me while I was learning to deal with the pain of fanaticism on my own,
rather than
feeding my delusions and glorifying me as a hero for taking sides;
without the wisdom of my teachers,
of Feldenkrais, Krishnamurti, Amos Oz, and many others,
whose worldview fosters love and unity for mankind
rather than
hate and division,
using and celebrating the symbolism of the egregore that caused the death of
75 million people;
without other people,
my life would have taken a very different path, and I would be at a very different place
if not for them,
I would probably continue to be a fanatic,
without even knowing.
May everyone be happy.
May everyone be free of disease.
May auspiciousness be seen everywhere.
May suffering belong to no-one.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/questionofgod/transcript/civilization.html
To find out more about it, check out Mind Field’s episode on Conformity
Mimesis refers to the process of imitation or mimicry, where individuals unconsciously adopt behaviors, desires, or attitudes by observing and imitating others, often as part of a social or cultural dynamic.
Book of Life, February 8 – Jiddu Krishnamurti
Book of Life, February 11 – Jiddu Krishnamurti
This section was curated using wordnet-online and dictionary.com
All supplemented with quotes from the book.