Extremism and Fundamentalism

Ah... quoted by the beautiful Jay Smooth, or "Illdoc" (Ill Doctrine), an incredibly sexy, progressive, mix-race African American New York-based hip hop radio host and political commentator...

My deepest condolences to those of us who victimise with or are victimised by false extremisms, which co-opt our spirit in service of the closed, the dualistic and the ethnocentric over and above the porous, the integrative and the trans-communal.

What kind of extremism is needed in today's day and age?
What kind of extremists will we be?




Slavoj Zizek's take on fundamentalism

"...are the terrorist fundamentalists, be they Christian or Muslim, really fundamentalists in the authentic sense of the term? Do they really believe? What they lack is a feature that is easy to discern in all authentic fundamentalists, from Tibetan Buddhists to the Amish in the U.S.: the absence of resentment and envy, the deep indifference towards the non-believers' way of life. If today's so-called fundamentalists really believe they have found their way to truth, why should they feel threatened by non-believers, why should they envy them? When a Buddhist encounters a Western hedonist, he hardly condemns him. He just benevolently notes that the hedonist's search for happiness is self-defeating. In contrast to true fundamentalists, the terrorist pseudo-fundamentalists are deeply bothered, intrigued, fascinated by the sinful life of non-believers. One can feel that, in fighting the sinful Other, they are fighting their own temptation. These so-called Christian or Muslim fundamentalists are a disgrace to true fundamentalism."

- Slavoj Zizek from "Violence"