extremism

It has always been a mystery to me at what makes an extremist tick. Of course, it is important to remember that the label extremist is open to interpretation. After all, one man’s meat is another man’s poison. What might seem to us as extreme may just be the logical and unarguable position for a firm believer to take. However, what bothers me is how modern day extremists can be so dead set in their ideas - ideas that are so far away from mainstream beliefs - that they are unmoved by outside opinions. It is disturbing to know how far an extremist can go for his beliefs, of course, he or she wouldn’t be labeled as one otherwise. Extremists are anything but half assed.

In the present day society, there exists a multitude of extremist groups. There are religious groups, patriotic groups, militia groups, nationalists, anti-hate groups and ironically, anti-extremists groups. Heck, you can probably throw in human and civil rights alongside with racism as extremist ideology. It miffs me that not a single soul of these folks realise that too much of a good thing can be bad. Don’t get me wrong, I am a firm believer of human and civil rights…when its applicable and I am also somewhat of a patriot . However, once you start pushing the boundaries and seeing how far you can go, shit just hits the fan - no matter how good an idea it may seem at that time.

It is my personal opinion, that extremism is a state of mind that thrives on the intractability and intolerance of the human nature as well as self-righteousness, fear, greed and personal insecurities. Why do I say that? Let’s take racism as an example. Racial prejudice is everywhere, it’s in everyone of us. Most of the time, it starts as a little thing and stays that way. That is tolerable. It is a big world after all, there are thousands of different races and ethnic tribes, it is simply not reasonable or feasible to expect everyone to get along well together. It is the fact that WE recognise that it is the little evil thing call bigotry that exists inside us that we do NOT become right-wing racist fucks. Recognition and acknowledgement are what separates us - the nice and normal people - from the intolerant, petty, cowardly and ignorant.

Let us now take a step down the well-beaten path of religious practises as another example. Religion is all fine and dandy. It makes the unhappy happy, the depressed and sullen become content, cheery bitches overnight with the help of religion. However, some folks are simply not satisfied with all that. Let it be clear that religion, as I understand, was never about power or control, neither is it a popularity contest. Something is wrong with the individual who tries to convert everyone to his beliefs and at the same time condemn everyone else for not sharing his faith. The fanatic is truly an immensely irritating persona. It gets even uglier when the fanatic turns to violence. There has been one too many report of clashes between religions as it is. Intolerant, self-righteous sons of bitches that are simply too stubborn to accept that not everyone is and has to be inclined to their beliefs. After all, on what grounds do I have to believe that your religion is the true one and mine is false? Actually, on what grounds do YOU have to condemn me for not believing in you? Makes one wonder about the state of religious practises are like nowadays. Worship and pray all you like, just shut up about it and stop expounding on the merits of your faith mister. Not all of us appreciate your preaching. As for those frustrated religious fanatics who turn to violence to prove their religion is the “omg we are 100% the real deal!”, here is some food for thought: God doesn’t need a pathetic mortal to kill for him. He could do it with a snap of a finger, if he can’t, what does that say about you and your religion eh?

Finally, we come to a personal pet peeve of mine - the human rights issue. Human rights is a wonderful thing most of the time when it is applied on the correct people in the correct situation. As with all things, when the human rights belief is brought to extreme, it just gets all retarded. It simply pisses me off to read and hear of murderers escaping the death penalty by pleading insanity. A life for a life my friend, instead of wasting tax payers money to put a murderer through psych therapy and rehabilitation, just hang the bastard already. I mean, how can you be sure a person charged and convicted for murder won’t do it again after some counselling and pills? Who is going to be answerable when a murderer gets released from loony hill and kills again? The shrinks? Nah, I don’t think so, its all those human rights activists who should be. They are the reason why the justice system in developed countries is so hesitant with capital punishment. I hope they realise that they are the WHY behind the unmoving crime rates. Human rights protect the criminals, for under their creed, all human beings deserve a second chance. Instead of giving people who do not deserve to breath in the air, let alone live - a good clean death - society wastes its finite resources on keeping them alive on the risk of being burned. Let’s take for example: if there was a rabid dog right outside your house where your little daughter passes by to goto school everyday, would you spare it just because it was a dog - and dogs have feelings too - or would you do the sensible thing and put down the mutt before it mauled your daughter? Go figure.

It also makes me angry to see mobs of anti-abortion protesters screaming about how abortion is murder and how even a 2 month foetus has the rights to live since it is technically a living thing blah blah blah. Don’t they have anything better to do with their time? It crosses from being ridiculous to downright astoundingly idiotic when activists start delivering death threats. It is definitely within the parents’ rights and privilege to abort their own child. Sure, you could go on forever about how that child deserves to live. But, I will wager the parents would know more about that than you eh? In fact, if all living things have the right to live, then I guess everyone in the world, including vegans are going to starve to death. Plants are living things too you know? Hence they have awareness and feeling in those little green hearts of theirs. Don’t blame me, those anti-abortion extremists are the ones that started being technical.

In conclusion, extremism is one of the more unfortunate occurrence to be found in the modern age. It is something that causes the world planty of grief, pain and unnecessary hatred, but hopefully - despite my attempts at talking out of my arse tonight - such feelings and actions will be eradicated some day. Perhaps then, the story of life’s greatest tragedy may just have a happy ending.