I was reading the thread about the secular humanist's comment about JWs, and the discussion about fundamentalism that follwed, and I was reminded of a book I read not too long ago. I dug it up and re-read the passage dealing with fundamentalism, and decided it was worth sharing - mostly because then some of you might go buy the book, and I think this book is the most inspiring I have ever read. I also thought that some of the comments described JWs very well.
It's The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield, a noted author and screenwriter. You can buy it here. (Please do!) The following short excerpt is under 600 words, and is late in the book, which is a short but not quick read about creating, and what we erect in our paths to prevent ourselves from doing so. If you are a nascent writer, artist, performer, or have a dream you won't let yourself pursue, buy this book.
The artist and the fundamentalist both confront the same issue, the mystery of their existence as individuals. Each asks the same questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of my life?
At more primitive stages of evolution, mankind didn't have to deal with such questions. In the states of savagery, of barbarism, in nomadic culture, medieval society, in the tribe and the clan, one's position was fixed by the commandments of the community. It was only with the advent of modernity (starting with the ancient Greeks), that such matters ascended to the fore.
These are not easy questions.Who am I? Why am I here? They're not easy because the human being is not wired to function as an individual. We're wired tribally, to act as part of a group. Our psyches are programmed by millions of years of hunter-gatherer evolution.We know what the clan is; we know how to fit into the band and the tribe. What we don't know is how to be alone. We don't know how to be free individuals.
The artist and the fundamentalist arise from societies at different stages of development. The artist is the advanced model. His culture possesses affluence, stability, enough excess of resource to permit the luxury of self-examination.The artist is grounded in freedom. He is not afraid of it. He is lucky. He was born in the right place. He has a core of self-confidence, of hope in the future. He believes in progress and evolution. His faith is that humankind is advancing, however haltingly and imperfectly, toward a better world.
The fundamentalist entertains no such notion. In his view, humanity has fallen from a higher state.The truth is not out there awaiting revelation; it has already been revealed. The word of God has been spoken and recorded by his prophet, be he Jesus, Muhammad, or Karl Marx.
Fundamentalism is the philosophy of the powerless, the conquered, the displaced and the dispossessed. Its spawning ground is the wreckage of political and military defeat, as Hebrew fundamentalism arose during the Babylonian captivity, as white Christian fundamentalism appeared in the American South during Reconstruction, as the notion of the Master Race evolved in Germany after World War I... Islamic fundamentalism ascends from the same landscape of despair and possesses the same tremendous and potent appeal.
What exactly is this despair? It is the despair of freedom. The dislocation and emasculation by the individual cut free from the familiar and comforting structures of the tribe, the clan, the villiage, and the family.
It is the state of modern life.
The fundamentalist (or, more accurately, the beleagured individual who comes to embrace fundamentalism), cannot stand freedom. He cannot find his way into the future, so he retreats into the past. He returns in imagination to the glory days of his race and seeks to reconstitute both them and himself in their purer, more virtuous light. He gets back to basics. To fundamentals.
Fundamentalism and art are mutually exclusive. There is no such thing as fundamentalist art. This does not mean that the fundamentalist is not creative. Rather, his creativity is inverted. He creates destruction. Even the structures he builds, his schools and networks or organization, are dedicated to annihiliation, of his enemies and of hiomself.
But the fundamentalist reserves his greates creativity for the fashioning of Satan, the image of his foe, in opposition to which he defines and gives meaning to his own life.