On Fanaticism and Fear

[lerite]

This post was originally going to be a question about children--at what age is it OK to expose children to dissenting viewpoints?--and you can ask me about some things I've done recently that in one case did and in one case did not expose children to dissent, and how both choices caused me pain because of the reactions of adults. (I have no idea

Comments

[batmiles]

> children--at what age is it OK to expose children to dissenting viewpoints

[lerite]

1) Interesting; this church runs Confirmation right around puberty

[batmiles]

2 - I was thinking ideas, not belief systems. Are all fanatics necessarily part of some belief system? Do bronies and railfans have a belief system? Is that completely off the rails and irrelevant?

4 - Some combination of logic, research, and democracy seems like a good way to make decisions. But that's just this one pseudorandomly generated position speaking.

5 - You should probably check it out.

6 - > When no one can hear your apology < but do most people use it that way? I have never prayed earnestly, not to a deity, and not in decades, so I can't really be sure, but that doesn't sound like the common definition of prayer.

7 - Fair enough.

[lerite]

I think fandom and fanaticism are somewhat different, although fandom could be fanaticism on the axis of "this group of cultural materials is interesting!" under my definition.

I know some people who assume that their own logic and research is always superior to everyone else's. I generally find them insufferable. Democracy is the problem here. What if you're pretty sure that a group you're standing in has democratically adopted a wrong position?

I will take that under advisement.

There's also asking for things you don't have any other way to try to get, and experiencing gratitude for things there's no one available to say thank you to. When one of the greatest social actors in your world is chance and not a person, anthropomorphizing it is probably psychologically healthy. Or at least semi-unavoidable and not inherently harmful.