When we are surrounded by a world where people kill each other and themselves in a sad attempt to improve the world according to their views we have resorted to a number of defensive mechanisms in our language. If a lone gunman attacks an elementary school we are quick to assert that “He was crazy!” and thus we feel better because at least we aren't crazy. However, when people with intelligence and intention commit coordinated acts of terror it is very difficult to dismiss them as just crazy.
Intelligence and intention do not play well with crazy and so we need to find a new word. “Extremist” is the popular choice at the moment, and like “crazy” we get to say “at least I’m not an extremist.” With the cunning use of language we can separate ourselves from the chaos of the world and feel better. As a result of this, one of the most abused word in the English language is “extreme” as well as its deviant forms “extremist” and “extremism”.
But what does it mean to be an “extremist”? To know that you need to try and find what “extreme” mean. “Extreme” seems to be a word that belongs more to the 90s than to modern politics, yet its definition is simple: “To push to its rational end”.
Extreme sports are a good example of this. If the goal is to push the body to its limit than how far can it go? How high can I jump? How strong can I be? How fast can I make it to the bottom of this mountain on this snowboard? And how little of a safety net can I give myself.
It can also easily be applied to the intellectual world. How much can I love? How much can I hate? How far can I take my world view before it leads to an absurdity? or how far can I push until the “rational end”.
Now, though there is a universal definition for “extremism” there is not a universal form. In fact, no single form of extremism can look like the other. For example, if I were to look at an extreme bodybuilder, I would see an very large, very powerful individual. If, however, I were to see an extreme runner, I would see a very thin, very sleek individual. The extremist bodybuilder and the extremist runner have nothing in common this is because they are extreme in their different lifestyles.
When applied to a intellectual level it is useful to think of all philosophies, religions and viewpoints as a shear with an infinite number of rays protruding from the center. Merriam-Webster defines extreme as “situated at the farthest possible point from a center” so if you can imagine the the sphere starting from the center and working outward you would be in a radically different place if you started just a few degrees to the left. In the same way an extremist Christian, an extremist Muslim and an extremist Buddhist would look very different.
If this is so then why do the Westboro Baptist Church, ISIS, and the Bodu Bala Sena (an extremely hateful Anti-Muslim faction of Buddhists in Burma) all have the same ideology and methodology, chiefly; “us vs. them and if you aren't us you will be harmed and hated”. Any attempt to study these religions reveals fundamental differences in in depth ideology. Therefore, as the Westboro Baptist Church, ISIS, and the Bodu Bala Sena are all basically the same they cannot all be extremist forms of their original religions.
So what are they? They are fringe groups. Groups that us, the “sane” and the “normal”, would condemn. They are outside the norm yet not extreme (except perhaps with in their own monolithic violent fringe ideology of “us vs. them and if you aren't us you will be harmed and hated”). The question that we must ask ourselves is what is “the rational end” of what we ourselves believe. Can we accept the extremism inherent in our own beliefs and if not: do you really believe in what you claim?
