Let's Be Reasonable!!!
“Death To All Fanatics!” is a fun slogan to scream at protests.
But the irony is usually lost on people and I don’t really want lots of people to die.
But there does seem to be a lot of fanatics out there screaming, protesting, taking action, raising money, getting elected, etc. etc. etc.
Just speaking from personal experience (what other kind is there?), I don’t know very many fanatics, left, right or any other direction. I do believe I have met one or two truly fanatical people, but the clear majority of people I have met personally seem to be of the non-fanatical type. You know, regular people. My own quick non-scientific survey of all the people I know personally has resulted in the following numbers: Fanatics 5% The Rest Of Us 95%.
So why is it that politics and the media seem to be dominated by fanatics?
Maybe politics and the media are fanatic breeding grounds where fanatics meet and mate and produce little fanatics. Maybe politics and the media are safe havens where fanatics can get away from all us boring, regular people and pursue their extreme pastimes without all that peer pressure to calm down. Or maybe fanatics don’t trust the rest of us to conduct the business of politics and the media in a way that is pleasing to fanatics, so they are staging a coup. Or, most disturbing of all, maybe all us regular folks secretly enjoy having all those fanatics ranting and raving in public where we can watch them and enjoy the show without having to do anything crazy ourselves.
Either way, I think it is fundamentally undemocratic to allow such a small percentage of the population to represent the rest of us. I think the silent majority needs to wake up and demand some real representation. The politicians and the media need to become more reasonable or they need to get out of our policies and out of our news and information. Of course this would mean that these people would no longer be fanatics. And it means that we would have to loose our addiction to watching and listening to fanatics all the time. Think we can do it? Could we really live without these raving lunatics and their extreme positions? It means we might have to pay more attention. It means we might need to learn things and be aware of facts. It means we might have to be empathetic and learn to compromise. But I am ready to try.
Let’s Be Reasonable!!!!
But the irony is usually lost on people and I don’t really want lots of people to die.
But there does seem to be a lot of fanatics out there screaming, protesting, taking action, raising money, getting elected, etc. etc. etc.
Just speaking from personal experience (what other kind is there?), I don’t know very many fanatics, left, right or any other direction. I do believe I have met one or two truly fanatical people, but the clear majority of people I have met personally seem to be of the non-fanatical type. You know, regular people. My own quick non-scientific survey of all the people I know personally has resulted in the following numbers: Fanatics 5% The Rest Of Us 95%.
So why is it that politics and the media seem to be dominated by fanatics?
Maybe politics and the media are fanatic breeding grounds where fanatics meet and mate and produce little fanatics. Maybe politics and the media are safe havens where fanatics can get away from all us boring, regular people and pursue their extreme pastimes without all that peer pressure to calm down. Or maybe fanatics don’t trust the rest of us to conduct the business of politics and the media in a way that is pleasing to fanatics, so they are staging a coup. Or, most disturbing of all, maybe all us regular folks secretly enjoy having all those fanatics ranting and raving in public where we can watch them and enjoy the show without having to do anything crazy ourselves.
Either way, I think it is fundamentally undemocratic to allow such a small percentage of the population to represent the rest of us. I think the silent majority needs to wake up and demand some real representation. The politicians and the media need to become more reasonable or they need to get out of our policies and out of our news and information. Of course this would mean that these people would no longer be fanatics. And it means that we would have to loose our addiction to watching and listening to fanatics all the time. Think we can do it? Could we really live without these raving lunatics and their extreme positions? It means we might have to pay more attention. It means we might need to learn things and be aware of facts. It means we might have to be empathetic and learn to compromise. But I am ready to try.
Let’s Be Reasonable!!!!
posted by Jay Larsen at 3:03 PM
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