From Blogger Carl:
Your investigations into the rise of anger and violence in our present-day 'uncivil war' is fascinating. But I think the problem you are dealing with is not the problem of 'religion' causing the rise of rage and violence. The problem is the rise of fanaticism, either of the left or right. Destabilizing factors that pit political fanatics against religious fanatics are rife today, obviously. But fundamentalist Christian religion, or fundamentalist Islam aren't the only culprits. Political religions like communism and nazism have bred violence on an far vaster scale. The left is as rife with fanaticism as the right. Liberals liberally call Bush and Cheney 'fascist' or 'nazi' much in the spirit of Joe McCarthy labeling liberals 'communists'. Fanatic Christians call their enemies 'sinners' but fanatic liberal secularist call their foes a whole string of names such as 'fascist, imperialist, sexist,racist, homophobic, etc. etc.' which amount to the same thing. You should look at the destabilizing factors that have caused the rise of both left/right fanaticism, especially within the so-called babyboom generation and not isolate the neo-nazis and fanatic fundamentalists as the sole culprits. I am coming to believe that the rise of the serial killer as a cultural icon since the sixties can be viewed as an unspoken death-wish of the boomer generation, perhaps as the result of the destablization of our society over the last four or five decades ensnaring us in the celebration of violence.I grew up in an era where guns were in every household but no one thought of taking them to school to kill fellow students. Something destabilized American society in the past forty years and you cannot blame either the left or right solely for the resulting rise of fanatcism.