Passion Gone Awry

Passion is a thing of beauty…and often brings forth more magnificence from within itself. It is an enthusiasm for life and for divine expression through life. True, even at its best its intensity can wear negatively on its human expression—the artist, the lover, the saint.

Always believe in what draws your heart, mind, and spirit! Be passionate, unreservedly! But a healthy passion is never intolerant. If you truly believe, then no one’s disbelief can threaten you or the object of your belief. If your passion is true, the fire will burn no matter how much water it is dowsed with. So unwavering will be the flame and the warmth of your passion that many will come to stand next to the fire, even without a word of invitation.

Fanaticism, on the other hand, is passion gone awry, become intolerant to any passion but its own, oblivious—if not contemptuous—to the heartfelt needs, beliefs, and aspirations of others. Fanaticism is a cancer of passion—healthy emotion become malignant—devouring even its human hosts in the obsessive drive for its own perpetuation. It is like any other addiction. When the source of the stimulation is first introduced into our body, our psyche, it generates an initial quickening that suggests a true divine meaning—but that is only a siren’s call. Very soon the sense of significance starts to slip. Rather that consider that this has been a false or unsustainable path, it convinces us that the meaning is still there, we just need to further devote ourselves to this jealous truth.

Fanatics flail around inside/against themselves…trying to generate enough true zeal to infuse some sense of consistent meaning in their lives. They ardently demand that we see in them and their actions the meaning that they themselves obviously cannot—or they would not have such a need to insure that others validate their meaning. What they don’t realize is that if there is meaning, it is inherent and originates from within oneself. Meaning is not universal and the recognition of it cannot be imposed onto another. External forces/activities are only a whitewash of meaning.

May I be blessed in avoiding fanatics whether for or against me/mine. In their flailing, the fanatic injures indiscriminately, both friend and foe. A fanatic against me, turned supporter is still just as dangerous, until the indiscriminate fire of their raging devotion has burned itself out. For their devotion is never truly for anything but obsession itself.

As hard as it is for my personal identity to adhere to this, I am not suggesting the total elimination of fanaticism. For I would then be advocating the annihilation of the very thing I had become; would I not? I would be the covert fanatic suggesting the intolerance to fanaticism.

Besides, that which you use force to resist, you give strength. All things—including intolerance—are an expression of—an element of—the divine in this dualist reality. I do, however, acknowledge that some manifestations of the divine are generally incompatible with the health and well-being of we humans—hurricanes, drought, wars, intolerance...

So what does one do to survive the threat of fanaticism if we are not going to forcefully eliminate it? First and foremost, once a landslide begins, one cannot benefit by trying to stop it. The most immediate and appropriate response is to avoid being its victim.

Once safely surviving that experience one should consider one’s own role it becoming a part of the experience. In truth, cause and effect are never linear. Was our location (involvement) ill-chosen? If our location was required, is there something we could have done to help avoid the experience? Note: This ‘something’ might merely be not to be in that location. No amount of shoring up an unstable mountain is going to protect the house built at the base of it. Nature always wins out.

As we are living fragile and finite existences, I fully understand there must be practical measures to restrain controllable threats to health and well-being. I have no intention of bringing that into question. However, I do suggest that the one most certain tool against the spread of fanaticism is not be become one. Let us consider the idea that we cannot expect to eradicate poison with more or stronger poison. How will we know then which has killed us, the disease or the cure?


Copyright 2007 CG Walters

This is my truth. Only you can determine if there is any value in it for you.

C.G. Walters primarily writes fiction that focuses on the multidimensionality of our loves and our lives. His current novel, Sacred Vow is a metaphysical novel about a man who responds to the mysterious call of [his soulmate], opening the way to redefinition of both himself and his understanding of the world around him…Highly recommended. —Midwest Book Review.

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