Jack wrote this in September, 2006:
Probably no human trait has caused more misery, bloodshed, pain and general deviltry in history than political, or religious zealotry.
Political, or religious zealotry. The deadly twins. They aren’t two separate traits. Political, or religious zealotry are just one trait following two different paths to create ugly.
Think about it. One of the reasons political and religious zealots tend to be found in the same human being lies in the fact that religious zealots have already graduated with honors from the school of blind faith.
Communism? 3/4 century of human misery caused by political zealotry. Cambodia? The Inquisition? The Mormons having to flee to Utah? The 3rd Reich? Jim Jones? Wossname Christian/Patriot bossman wanting to assassinate wossnamisimo prez of Venezuela? The Kennedy bros. ordering the assassination of Prez Diem, was it, our ally, South Vietnam? The Kennedy bros., themselves getting assassinated?
Political, or religious zealotry.
Today it isn’t getting better, as a person might have expected, because of the collapse of Communism world-wide. It’s gotten a lot worse. We’ve got Muslim zealots, Christian zealots, Prez step-two Bush Dynasty and ex-prez BlowJob wives all in the game of zealous one-upsmanship. Zionist zealots wanting to snag every piece of real estate in the Middle East they can drum up an excuse to play for US support, which doesn’t take much. Hispanic zealots in the US southwest wanting to take it away from the white zealots who took it away from them. Environmentalist zealots trying to spike trees to injure the workmen cutting down trees while they listen to Joseph Rush Goebbels on the radio to help them remember what to think about rad-libs, Arabs, and whomever it is we’re bombing the bejesus out of this week.
This ain’t cutting it. It’s not making your lives happier, and it’s sure as hell not making them better.
One of the things I like best about the teachings of the Buddha is the emphasis on moderation, the cautions against zealotry.
Religious moderates have never burned one another at the stake. Political moderates have never dragged out the guillotine to punish the opposition. They never built any gas chambers and ovens. No political or religious moderate ever pulled the trigger on anyone, ever dropped a bomb on anyone except in self-defense.
Political, or religious zealotry. Human traits worth hating, but they usually only hate one another. Moderates never bother to hate anyone.
Moderates. Nice, easy living sort of term.
Jack
So Far From Heaven 