On Extremism

I will not tire of declaring that if we really want an effective end to violence we must remove the violence that lies at the root of all violence: structural violence, social injustice, exclusion of citizens from the management of the country, repression. All this is what constitutes the primal cause, from which the rest flows naturally.*

Oscar Romero

 

“We are living in modern times throughout the world and yet are dominated by medieval minds.”

Eqbal Ahmad

 

Now, really, how arch

Can you be when you march

With a sword,

With a spear?

You belong

 

To a curious team,

You're in the extreme,

Maybe left,

Maybe right,

Maybe wrong.”

Walt Kelly, The Pogo Poop Book

__________________________

 

perhaps I am wrong

I want to be wrong

But it seems like an inconvertible truth

 

extremism makes a person blind

as  Clint Eastwood (great philosopher that he is)

once said

“Extremism is so easy. You've got your position, and that's it. It doesn't take much thought. And when you go far enough to the right you meet the same idiots coming around from the left. (Interview, Time Magazine, February 20, 2005)”

 

extremism makes a person rigid

extremism narrows a person’s world down

but most of all

 

extremism makes a person cruel

 

by definition extremists are on

the end of the spectrum

 

it does not matter which end

 

and they deem as unacceptable anything to the left (or right)

of their position

 

which means that almost everything is unacceptable

 

and if it is unacceptable, it must be irradicated

controlled

even destroyed

 

which means extremism is cold, and it is cruel

 

I have seen Vegans bemoan humans killing animals

but joke about animals killing humans

Really?

 

I have seen liberals celebrate when people on the right end of the spectrum

Face difficult times

 

And conservative suggest liberals ought to be put in “camps”

 

We have seen the rush to ban abortion by pro-life (really pro-birth) extremists,

a campaign that is now bearing fruit

 

while protecting the lives of zygotes and fetuses

this movement totally and cruelly abandons

the female human creatures who carry them

 

ignoring incest and rape

ignoring age

ignoring, ultimately, the child who is born

 

functionally abandoning them (because of their political orientation)

once born

to violence

illness

gun violence

homelessness

hunger

 

cruelly forcing both mother and child

into a lifetime of pain

 

sure, it’s complicated

but that is the point

it is complicated

and there is no room in extremism for complications

for inconvenient truths

 

so it is OK to destroy a 13-year-old girl

who has been raped

and consider her agony an “opportunity”

 

Ok to demand the right to bear arms

And ignore the

 

extremism leads to violence

not just physical violence, such as that seen on January sixth

but emotional,

spiritual

relational violence

 

extreme anything can do great harm

 

unless

it is extreme love

which does not stake a spot

at any one place on the spectrum

but in love

embraces the whole spectrum

 

I can only think of Jesus on the cross

Arms stretched wide

Reaching out to the criminals on either side

Arms stretched wide

Embracing the tormentors below him

Embracing the mourners below him

Embracing the disciples, the women, the Romans

His friends, his enemies

All

 

Any ideology, theology

Any stance we would embrace

Any value

 

Must always be subservient to love

If your love of zygotes negates your love of the woman

who happens to carry that zygote?

There is a problem

 

If your love of guns negates your love

Of children

There is a problem

 

If your love of power

Negates your love of equity, or equality

There is a problem

 

If your love of money

Negates your love of people

 

Even love for the oppressed

Can lead to an abandonment of love!

 

As I said, it is complicated

 

It seems as if the only form of extremism that is healthy

The extremism that says

(and perhaps there are exceptions even here)

I will not leave the planet behind

I will not leave the flora and fauna behind

I will leave no human creature behind

 

I will love

and do the best I can

to eradicate hate

and violence

 

toward anyone

toward anything

 

I will inch my way toward

that extreme place

illustrated by Jesus on the cross

 

and embrace all