WHAT IS EXTREMISM?

Just because you have some ideal or goal which is – or seems - completely at odds with the world as it is, does not mean you are an extremist. Extremism is an attitude, not just a set of ideas or concepts. You can thus take any desire and tackle it in an extremist fashion or in a non-extreme way. Being, say an anarchist or a socialist, an atheist or a Christian does not make one an extremist, but there are plainly extremist versions of these world-views. So what is the extremist attitude?

The extremist is, first and foremost, a bully and an authoritarian. It is always “my way or the highway.” There is no respect for any slight deviation from what the extremist thinks – agreeing with half of what that person thinks is seen as wrong as complete disagreement. There is no respect for other views and no attempt to find a common ground. Tolerance and nuance are seen as weakness and decadence. People who hold somewhat different views are abused, called “sell-outs”, “revisionists”, “renegades” , “liberals”, “turn-coats” “wishy-washy” etc. When extremists hold state power, they will use that power to persecute, criminalize and punish those with different viewpoints. Extremists at the head of movements without state power will call upon their members to attack and even kill people whose viewpoints offend them.

Extremism is, of course, more than just an attitude. There are extreme doctrines. These doctrines are completely at odds with several hundred years of social progress and they are based not upon empirically varifiable data but conspiracy theories, “revealed.” religion and pseudo-science. Furthermore, the forseeable implementation of these docrines is part and parcel of those doctrines. Examples include religious extremists that are homophobes and misogyists, political economists who seek to abolish a century of social reform and go back to a Dickensian capitalism, neoStalinists who would round up and shoot anarchists and socialists, and fascists, Nazis, “alt-rightists”, and white supremists of every possible description.

Extreme doctrines are a magnet for extremist personalities, and of course, such doctrines have been constructed by such personalities to begin with. But this leads us to ask “where does the extremist personality come from?” The same place all bullies come from – emotional trauma. Is it any wonder then that extremism tends to develop in societies with a great deal of violence, or among groups that have been brutally oppressed within a violent society? There are, of course, relatively priviledged groups, who see the coming of equality as a threat. Much of white racism is rooted here.

Finally, it needs pointing out that imperialism has aided and abetted extremism in its war against national liberation movements and general social progress. Beginning in the 1930s the American Manufacturers Assn. bankrolled, “Christian fundamentalist” groups as a way of combatting the “social gospel” of mainstream Protestants. Fundamentalism has been promoted in Latin America to offset Catholic social teaching and especialy Liberation Theology. At home fascists are given kid gloves treatment – if the left was anywhere near as violent as these groups they would be swiftly suppressed. The fascists are capitalism's “useful idiots.”

In the Middle East no effort was spared by imperialism to destroy the secular nationalist modernizer regimes. It seems to have been forgotten that back in the 1950s and 60s there was a strong modernizing, secularist movement in the Middle East which included Communist and Socialist Parties. Islamic extremism has two roots, one is the destruction of the secular nationalist Mossedegh government in Iran and its replacement by the brutal Shah, the other is the US-engendered defeat of the leftist Afghan government. Britain encouraged the Muslim Brotherhood in opposition to the secular Nassar government and both the USA and the UK backed the reactionary Saudis with their Wahhabi extremist version of Islam which they have exported throughout the Muslim world. The US has added more fuel to the fire by giving Israel a complete carte blanche to do anything they want against the Palestinians.

And people wonder why there are extremist groups?