Emotionally self-sufficient, confident, positive-minded people live in harmony with the outside world. They do not need to uphold their innocence, no matter what it concerns. Interacting calmly with others, they carry their point of view with dignity, not feeling the need for someone to share it without fail. However, a different category of people is represented in the world, opposite to the one described above and called “fanatics”.
Fanaticism ... What is it?
However, not every manifestation of excessive interest in anything can characterize a person as a fanatic. And vice versa.
Fanaticism is an excessive enthusiasm for any idea or person, expressed in the dedication of a significant part of one’s life and spiritual content to the object of worship, as well as in the implacable upholding of one’s own view and imposing it on other people, often in an aggressive form. This phenomenon can be related to anything - morality, a famous person, the political trend, etc. However, religious fanaticism acts as its most dangerous form.
The origins of religious fanaticism
Religious fanaticism is a commitment to a particular religion and its traditions, which is combined with an intolerant, often aggressive attitude towards those whose points of view are different. From the moment when mankind acquired its first religion, and up to the present, one and the same tendency has been observed - adherents of one or another spiritual trend sooner or later elevate its postulates to the rank of undeniable truth. And despite the fact that most religions carry very similar truths, the so-called fanatics do not just remain faithful to them, they try to make them monopolistic and impose on as many people as possible. World history knows a lot of examples of religious fanaticism, which include the Inquisition, the Crusades, and mass self-immolations in the name of the old faith ... Moreover, at different times, the attitude of society to this phenomenon was very different. In these examples, there is religious fanaticism in higher circles, and point resistance to dissent. And in either case, any bias of beliefs and faith towards emotions and intransigence poses a serious threat to the well-being of individuals and the state as a whole.
Religious fanaticism today
Nowadays, examples of religious fanaticism can be found in all mass religions. Although the image of the most aggressive religion has acquired Islam in connection with a significant number of terrorist acts, from which dozens of countries have shuddered for many years. Nevertheless, the influence of fanaticism can be very fatal and without violence. For example, fanatic parents can raise their child contrary to the modern canons of human development and socialization. There are cases when illiterate children grow up in modern families attending religious sects, because the leaders of the spiritual movement, to which the parents of the child are committed, consider it incorrect to teach female children to read and write. The Catholic Church has a very negative attitude towards abortion and the protection against unwanted conception. And although society has gradually developed a rather tolerant, and sometimes approving, attitude towards abortion, abortion is still prohibited in some countries or their individual regions, which is also considered a manifestation of religious fanaticism. Sometimes extreme intolerance of people does not harm anyone but themselves. For example, ardent Buddhists do not impose their faith on others, do not argue, do not prove that they are right. Their fanaticism is manifested mainly in deep concentration, numerous and lengthy spiritual practices, which sometimes drive people to madness, since the trials to which they expose themselves are often unthinkable.
Relation to the fanaticism of the Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church refers to this phenomenon with condemnation and rejection. Fanaticism is a sin, according to Orthodox clergy. The lack of love for all people, spiritual death, idle talk without reasoning cannot be encouraged by the Orthodox. Fanatical parents, bringing small children to the service and not noticing the child’s fatigue, his misunderstanding and rejection of the situation, instill in him not love for the church, but fear, irritation, unwillingness to come there again.
Reasons for fanaticism
Fanaticism is a phenomenon that does not arise from scratch. Like any other deviation, it has reasons that are rooted, usually very deeply. Fanatical people are most often aggressive, embittered, do not understand and do not accept someone else's point of view. Sometimes they become part of a community, faithfully follow its dogmas and try to transfer their view of faith to the closest circle of fellowship. And there is another category of fanatics - leaders who not only share and follow an attractive philosophy or religion, but through vivid, charismatic actions involve a large number of people in it, not limited to the circle of relatives and friends. And while the former are generally harmless carriers of annoying information, the latter pose an extremely serious threat to society.
Every day, tens and hundreds of people are involved in the life of sects of unknown origin, turn away from their families, spend huge sums of money to maintain and develop a close-minded community, lose themselves in the desire to follow the postulates that found a lively response in their souls thanks to charisma, confidence and oratory of the leader.
Ways to combat religious fanaticism
Life does not stand still; most states of the modern world are secular. Despite a very respectful attitude to religion, any power, as a rule, is not interested in extreme manifestations of religiosity. What measures are being taken in various countries to minimize the manifestation of fanaticism among believers? In some Asian countries, over the past twenty-twenty-five years, many bans have been imposed on wearing religious clothes for ordinary people who are not related to the ministry. Sometimes such prohibitions are caused not so much by the struggle against violent fanatics as by security concerns. For example, a few years ago France took the path of banning the wearing of hijabs. Moreover, this decision cost the country a lot, given the implacable attitude of Muslims to issues of clothing.
A lot of efforts aimed at combating religious fanaticism are being undertaken in the field of education. They try to give children the opportunity to choose and protect their fragile consciousness from the onslaught of savvy religious fanatics. In many countries, the activity of certain organizations that have a religion-based ideology is prohibited by law.
National fanaticism
No less scary, destructive and ruthless is national fanaticism. This zealous worship of the exceptional superiority of a nation or race has dotted world history with many examples of bloody confrontations. One of the most striking manifestations of national fanaticism was the idea of Alfred Ploetz about the division of all people into higher and lower races, which subsequently laid the foundation for the Second World War.
Another example is the Ku Klux Klan, an organization that included a huge number of people who hated and deeply despised blacks.
The fierceness of the KKK members led to an unthinkable number of victims who died from the sophisticated brutality of fanatics. Echoes of the activities of this organization are periodically heard at the present time.
The psychological nature of fanaticism
Large-scale fanaticism, as a rule, has reasons of a social or political nature. Extreme manifestation of faith is always beneficial to someone other than fierce adherents. But what makes a particular person so? Why does one become a fanatic, and the other, in spite of everything, continues to go his own way, not reacting to other people's opinions and religious dogmas.
As a rule, the reasons for becoming a true fanatic go back to childhood. Most often, fanatics are people who, from an early age, are used to living in fear and misunderstanding. Mistakes in education made by their parents, at a conscious age, turn into a desire to join a group and become part of it in order to feel security and confidence. However, a person cannot find peace only because there were people with similar views. He will continue to worry, worry, look for a threat in any manifestation of dissent, fight with windmills, convincing everyone and everything that his truth is the first. This is how fanaticism manifests itself. What does it mean? Anyone who thinks otherwise poses a threat to his hard-won peace. Therefore, interaction with a fanatic is not so simple.
How to cope with the manifestations of fanaticism in a loved one
Fanaticism ... What is it? What to do if among the fanatics is a person close to you? Any manifestations of extreme intolerance and blind worship, whether it is a selfless love of a star, or an aggressive desire to share his faith with other people at all costs are signs of an unhealthy psyche.
According to many researchers, fanaticism is a disease. Relatives and friends of such a person should seriously approach this kind of problem. And if it is already impossible to correct the mistakes made many years ago, then support, understanding, elimination of the reasons for fears and anxieties, timely addressing to psychologists, motivation for self-development and strengthening the psyche will help overcome this phenomenon.