How to Roll Back Fanaticism

How to Roll Back Fanaticism
I’m beginning to think the whole depressing spectacle of this moment — the Trump presidency
and beyond — is caused by a breakdown of intellectual virtue, a breakdown in America’s ability to face evidence objectively, to pay due respect to reality, to deal with complex and unpleasant truths.
In the White House you have pseudo-intellectuals like Steve Bannon who think the world is secretly controlled by the “deep state.” You
have memos like the one written by the recently fired Rich Higgins, positing a massive worldwide conspiracy involving the A. C.L.
There’s a child abuse ring run by Clintonites out of a pizzeria in Northwest D. C. All the ambiguities of life can be explained by pointing to the malevolent webs of secret power
that only you — you precious, superior few — can see and understand.
Progress is not made by crushing some swarm of malevolent foes; it’s made by finding balance
between competing truths — between freedom and security, diversity and solidarity.
If the alt-right thinks the globalists secretly and malevolently control society, the neo-Nazis go back to the original version
and believe that a conspiracy of Jewish bankers does.
The age of anxiety inevitably leads to an age of fanaticism, as people seek crude palliatives for the dizziness of freedom.
Many people live within a bewildering freedom, without institutions to trust, unattached to compelling religions
and sources of meaning, uncertain about their own lives.
The true link between the Trump administration and those pathetic loons in Charlottesville is not just bigotry, but also conspiracy mongering.