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2005-11-10 - 1:07 p.m.

Musings . . .

On general principle I do not post my political thoughts in this journal.

I am not about to start now.

Having said that, I feel philosophical today and in the mood of sharing a line of thought that I have held for years.

If you look at your history books, particularly where it refers to revolutions and revolts, you will notice that in the beginning, the extremists always win. It is a proven fact, and it is only a matter of time before that happens.

When I say extremists, I am not referring to a particular group. Extremism happens everywhere, all the time, and it does not recognize barriers of religion, gender, political affiliation or level of intelligence. Extremism just is.

Because of that, to me all extremists, be it liberal, conservative, religious, atheist, or insert your name here, are all the same person only under the label du joir.

And they will always win the first battle, or even the first series of battles.

Why? Because they appeal to something very primal in every one of us. The desire of seeing everything in terms of black and white, the "us" against "them," the "good" against the "bad." I bet that none of the worst tirants in history saw him or herself as the bad guy. In his eyes, and in the eyes of people who saw things in the same light, they were probably even heroes.

Besides, extremists are always willing to go to any extreme to achieve their goal and that will take you places. (That is why they are called extremists. Duh.)

Nevertheless, nothing is forever, not even the reign of the extreme. Look at the French Revolution, for example. Even the Reign of Terror of their extremists, (who ironically did it all in the name of equality, fraternity, and liberty), did not last forever. In the end, they fell victims of their own success and many of them ended up executed by their own machinery.

And I cite the French Revolution just as one example. We can see the same pattern all over history, not just France in 1789.

At any rate, as part of the same pattern, once the extremists take absolute power, their decline ensues. Why? Because you can only sustain that kind of thing for so long. And also because people get tired of the rethoric. Or simply they -- the extremists -- tend to destroy each other and whoever is left alive will either have to make concessions with more moderate people or die alone.

That is when moderates take over and start the rebuilding of a society.

Eventually.

And that is when the tide turns.

Things are not as simple as I describe it, but it is the way I can put it in a nutshell.

So in the end, the extremists win the day, but at one point or another the moderates will will the war.

It is only a matter of time.

And history repeats itself.

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