Fanatic

"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."
- Sir Winston Churchill, British politician (1874 - 1965)

I made an important career decision yesterday that reflected my values rather than my fantasies - quite a key distinction for me. It rained for most of the day, but there was a 3 hour respite in the evening so we had a barbeque (the highlight was chicken in Reggae sauce) - carpe diem!

In the world we live in, where there is so much hatred and violence, I wonder how much of this is due to mental inflexibility. For many people, the response to uncertainty is to revert to dogma, rather than undergo the hard work of thinking. Not only will they not entertain other possibilities, but they will also make the issue central in their lives until it consumes them, sometimes literally. Is fanaticism then, simply a dangerous form of mental laziness? I guess we must be careful who we call lazy :-).

I believe that laziness is at the heart of many human failings like hatred, fanaticism, prejudice etc. It is the lack of inclination or discipline to think. The path of least resistance or at least least effort is the rigid one. And yet the changing world requires more flexibility.....