In Medieval Europe, the Ottoman Empire and in 18th and 19th Russia there existed “homelands” or ghettoes in which Jews (other minorities had their own versions of these) in which they could safely live as long as they did not stray outside physical and other boundaries. Within walls or “Pales of Settlement” there were the same basic populations as outside. There were ordinary people and extraordinary people. A few ordinary ones were rich and able to live above the mass or ordinary people and then – there were the ones marked by lunacy, fanaticism and heresy. These marched to the sounds of different drummers.
In the larger world that was born out of World War II, a large number of new countries were carved out of the carcass of those empires of the British, French, German, Russia and Japan that dangerously almost became “third” world countries where people have always been poor, ignorant and ill-prepared for the new technologies that have revolutionized the last half of the 20th Century.
So where do the lunatics, fanatics and the heretics fit in? They do not fit in and that is their power. Lunatics will be discussed first.
Lunacy is associated with “unsoundness of mind”. Formerly it was connected to phases of the moon because of one half of our population having monthly difficulty with spontaneous bleeding and being accused of moodiness and “mental disorder”. But lunatic behavior was best seen in the Yippies who gave Hippies a bad name. Hippies were difficult enough to deal with for they eschewed violence and were often named “flower children”. Yuppies were the overindulged children of the Greatest Generation. Yippies were activists who may be counted among the “crazies” who sought to give “power to the people”. They used techniques of kidnapping and blowing up public facilities. Lunatics are very noticeable and flaunt their self aggrandizement. They are daring and command our attention.
Fanatics are a step up from lunatics. Violent, they use terrorism to hurt innocents to make a point. In order to bring THE people to power they sacrifice people who get in the way. It is difficult to deal with them, particularly when they strap explosives to themselves. They blow themselves and others up, do not negotiate and exchange views but go to direct action. Chaos results and this satisfies.
The last of this trio is the heretic. Once thought of as a variant to the majority belief, heretics’ positions were thought to be lunacy and non-believers labeled fanatics. Of course, the social deviants described here do not describe any of you – but you might watch your neighbors.