Thread by @Doc_0

One of the major products of a generation of intense secularism has been an explosion of fanaticism. "Those who claim to believe in nothing will believe anything" doesn't quite cover it. The deeper problems are ideological polarization and factionalism.

To put it simply, over the past few decades ideological groups have realized that fanatical commitment to cause is a powerful force multiplier. A small group of fanatics looks much bigger than it really is, especially on social media.

Fanatical groups have an easy time recruiting from demoralized, cynical young people who are hungry for meaning, purpose, and identity. They're desperate to feel righteous, so they readily sign up for crusades that flatter their intellectual vanity and indulge their emotions.

This sense of demoralized ennui and bitter cynicism was created on purpose, by battalions of Marxist educators and popular culture. They worked hard to sever the natural bonds between young people and their family, culture, and nation, creating a generation of angry orphans.

The result of this educational program was not a generation of proud free thinkers, but rather a sea of despondent youth who are easily recruited to fanatical causes because they were taught to distrust traditions, family, capitalist freedom, and even humanity itself.

You can see this lust for fanaticism manifesting itself in countless ways, some of them relatively benign, like people becoming utterly devoted to pieces of pop culture and hurling vile invective - or even seeking to do actual harm - to those who question their tastes.

Fanatical devotion means power, and a generation taught to view itself as helpless victims of capitalism, white supremacy, etc. is ravenous for power. They long for the white-hot rush that comes from feeling like they finally have AUTHORITY.

This is one reason why social media mobs become jubilant when they think they've ruined someone's life, gotten them fired, or forced them offline. Doling out punishment is the most primitive element of authority. If you're punishing people, then you must be IN CHARGE at last!

It's no surprise that people who long to feel like the have authority are so easily recruited into authoritarian causes. Of course they're looking to fill the spiritual void in their lives that was created by the death of religion and tradition.

Some of the more popular fanatical causes cloak themselves in pseudo-scientific jargon - transgenderism, global warming - in order to flatter the intellectual vanity of recruits and convince them they're not joining one of those icky religious cults they were taught to fear.

The past few generations of indoctrination had a particular target. They knew they had to destroy a specific virtue that functions as the natural antibody against fanaticism, a virtue that is nourished by Judeo-Christian tradition and classical American culture.

That virtue is HUMILITY. It is one of the hardest virtues to understand, because it is easily ridiculed as weakness or even hypocrisy, and it has many subtle aspects. One of its more obvious aspects is that humble people don't become shrieking jackbooted fanatics.

From humility also flows goodwill, the vital ingredient for a constructive and harmonious culture: the gracious willingness to think the best of others, to forgive their trespasses, to assume the best of them until proven otherwise.

Toxic ideologies like critical race theory, cancel culture, etc. require the complete absence of goodwill, and therefore humility. These ideologies are based on presumed guilt and unreasoning punishment. The worst is assumed of citizens to indulge the worst impulses of the State.

Whatever else you can say of the generation that staggered out of Marxist hotboxes on campus, the one thing they do not EVER feel is "humble." They were taught to view humility as a weakness that allows capitalists to exploit them.

They gravitate naturally to fanatical causes that flatter their arrogance, causes where they can declare their absolute righteousness, giving themselves license to do whatever is necessary to silence and subdue unbelievers: blocking traffic, vandalism, assault.

Every toxic group making headlines today is defined by its soaring arrogance, including the latest plague upon Western civilization, Hamas supporters. Oppression theology is inherently, monstrously arrogant. No humility is expected from the Oppressed and their champions!

I saw some people over the weekend wondering at the heavy correlation between Hamas supporters and coronavirus lockdown fanatics. That's not mysterious at all. It's the same impulse to arrogantly claim absolute righteousness and smite the unbelievers. It's the same rush.

Those who seek collectivist power are naturally at war against humility. Big Government is the greatest expression of arrogance imaginable, transforming dull-witted mediocrities into absolute rulers and paragons of scientific authority. A humble society loves freedom. /end