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Fanaticism at its Finest.

03-20-2016

Fanaticism is a very interesting subject that I, myself, have a hard time fully understanding.

It’s as if though, when people become fanatic about something or someone, these people tend to lose their sense of rationality when talking about it.

Especially, when someone tries to present a strikingly contrasting view about that something or someone.

Fanatics tend to be hostile towards that individual who contrasts with what the fanatics are fanatic about.

But why is it so?

In order to fully understand the nature of fanaticism, I think we must first define the word, as to have a clear context on where my following arguments will be coming from.

Fanaticism as it is defined today is:

fanatic outlook or behaviour.

Upon which the word fanatic means:

marked by excessive enthusiasm and often intense uncritical devotion

As we’ve seen in the definition, the word fanaticism is a specific outlook marked with excessive enthusiasm and intense uncritical devotion.

Excessive enthusiasm.

This is my first point in understanding as to why fanatics tend to be hostile towards people who contrast with them.

Fanatics tend to be overly enthusiastic about a specific thing to the point that it becomes insanely dangerous. You see, enthusiasm in itself isn’t a dangerous feeling to feel, but being excessive about it do. Being excited about a certain thing makes you invested towards it, as more and more of this excitement flows into you. And the more you become invested towards it the more it becomes important to you. As with other important things, people tend to be protective about it and when someone tries to contrast that excitement, they tend to be violent towards it. Simply because these people think that the contrasting view is infringing on their excitement and removing the sense of enthusiasm towards the thing they’re enthusiastic about.

As such, fanaticism tends to breed better on a homogenous environment with no contrasting views.

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Uncritical.

This is my second point in understanding the nature and hostility of fanatics.

We’ve already talked about how these people tend to be overly enthusiastic towards a certain thing to the point of protecting that particular thing.

But there is a another thing that is important in to be able to have a well-rounded view on understanding these people.

Which is the state of being uncritical.

The state of being uncritical is state upon a person just accepts what is told to them to be the whole truth without questioning it.

This is particularly scary when people tend to be fanatic towards a certain person, as that person can just as easily inject ideas into the minds of the people who’re excessively enthusiastic about them. With inanimate objects, the state of being uncritical tends to be limited to these people disregarding other objects that are similar to what they’re enthusiastic about.

Now, why am I talking about fanaticism?

Well, there’s a recent event in my country where people attacked a particular student who’ve given a “disrespectful” remark towards a particular political candidate during a forum that candidate desired to have. As you can see, a lot of people tend to be particularly enthusiastic about this candidate and as such, when people thought that this student “disrespected” the said candidate, they all clamored on social media sites bashing this particular student.

To give context on what the people talking about the statement of the student. What the student basically said to the politician is: “Now, so that you can go home, can you answer my question?”

Now, in light with that issue, I can’t quite understand as to why people thought that the remark of the student is “disrespectful” as it kept me asking “to what?”

To what did the student “disrespected” the politician at?

A lot of people who I talked to and saw on social media sites tend to say that the student disrespected the politician with his remark because the politician did something in his the city he served at and I was like, but how does that correlate?

How does that correlate to the statement of the student? I can’t see how the statement of the student in any way disrespected what this politician did in his city.

But with further digging, I came to what I think the real source of this issue.The supporters of the candidate aren’t mad because the student disrespected the works of the politician but rather it’s because the student said something “offensive” to an older person.

Seniority Complex.

Now, seniority complex is another inherent problem in our society. But I won’t dabble into it further.

It must be noted, however, that the student did not disrespect the politician and that just because the student made an “offensive” remark to the politician, the student should not be bashed for his remark.

Simply because it is not the remark the people should care about but the question that the student presented, which seems to be forgotten by a lot of people.

What is this question you might ask?

The student asked the politician with his plans for education since the politician in question gave a public statement that he’ll prioritize military development if ever he’s elected.

A perfectly valid question, isn’t it?

All swept away because people emphasized on his remark rather than his question. A remark that I personally think isn’t even remotely offensive to anyone.