The fundamentalist essay by Strozier and Boyd made some very interesting points on dualistic thinking. One of the arguments that caught my attention was from Robert M. Young, who stated that a dualistic mindset tends to “see others in very partial terms-as part objects…. [they] lose the ability to imagine the inner world and humanity of others.” Even without considering religion or the apocalypse, I find that I can really understand what Young is saying. It is extremely easy to judge someone else’s actions without considering what could have led them to behave in a certain way. When judging myself, I will try to create a gray area if I know I’ve done something that I believe is wrong. However if I saw someone else do the same thing, I would probably just label them as a bad person. It is also noted in the reading that dualistic thinking goes hand in hand with paranoia and the apocalyptic. When one decides to go against “evil”, they become part of a fundamentalist group, embracing what they believe is true.
The reason that dualistic thinking can lead to violence is because when there is a large group defending a cause that each individual group values, the group tends to come to the conclusion that they must defend what they believe against everyone who opposes them. This means using violence if necessary, because the important thing to do is to rid the world of evil. This is visible in many aspects of society – large groups tend to riot and become destructive because of the simple ideology of power in numbers. In the past year alone this can be observed happening all around the globe – riots in Syria, Egypt, Madrid, and other regions. The public (the fundamentlist group believing they are good) is rioting against the government, who they deem as “evil”. If one person were to go against the government, or any form of structural power, it is highly doubtful there would be any violence.
To a fundamentalist, the apocalypse is a much more tolerable event because it means vindication as opposed to an imminent death. If one is part of a group that is ‘fighting’ towards righteousness, they can believe that when the apocalypse comes, they will be saved from pain and from violence. Even though I know that nuclear technology capable of destroying the world exists, I never really processed how powerful that actually is. In the reading, the authors state that until nuclear weapons were made, God was the only being capable of destroying humanity. They argue that nuclear weapons have changed us psychologically, and that they “intensify the potential for violence in apocalyptic groups.” I agree with this entirely – I am much more likely to believe that the end of the world is possible through the irresponsible nuclear actions of a certain group or individual.
