4. VIOLENCE AS SQUELCHING DOUBT

Part and parcel of fanatic belief is the idea that everyone must worship the same god or nation or ideology that one’s own group worships. True believers like Hitler and Bin Laden become deeply disturbed when they realize that there are others in the world who do not share their beliefs.

What’s more, people like Hitler and Bin Laden often imagine that non-believers are working actively to destroy their god, nation or ideology. Bin Laden stated that it was necessary to “restrain the fury” of non-believers. Hitler claimed that Jews represented a “force of disintegration” working to destroy Germany--break the nation into pieces.

An order of November 1, 1944 to the Air Force (when the German military already knew that the war had been lost) stated that anyone who expressed doubt about the Fuehrer—criticized him or his measures or defamed him—was a person without honor who “deserved to die.”

Lecturing his SS-men, Himmler stated that if anyone should ever be disloyal to the Fuehrer or the Reich “even if only in thought”—it was up to them to see to it that this man “departs from the brotherhood.” Requiring absolute faith, National Socialism revolved around making sure that people who were insufficiently devoted to Hitler and Germany—”departed their lives.”

I hypothesize that where there is fanatic belief—when one imagines that an object is omnipotent—then doubt also must be present. Doubt cannot be separated from fanatic belief—because in reality there is no such thing as omnipotence.

If no-thing is absolutely true and no-thing absolutely powerful, then if someone believes that some-thing is absolutely true and absolutely powerful--doubt must be present.

Terroristic violence is undertaken to squelch doubt. As a believer begins to sense--has the thought--that the object he or she worships is not omnipotent (that there is no such thing as omnipotence)—the experience of doubt may be projected into another group or class of people.

This other group or class of people comes to symbolize disbelief in the goodness and power of the object with which members of one’s own group are identified.

To maintain faith—remain attached and devoted to the sacred object—the believer must rid himself of feelings of skepticism and doubt. To rescue the sacred object—remove feelings of doubt and disbelief—acts of violence may be undertaken against a group or class of people that symbolizes doubt and disbelief (feelings the believer has repressed or disavowed). 

Those who doubt or do not believe in the sacred object that one’s group worships are called infidels--or enemies. An infidel or enemy symbolizes negation of the omnipotent object that one worship. In the minds of some fanatic believers, these doubters or disbelievers—infidels or enemies—must be squelched, or eliminated.

Indeed, the other group may possess a sacred object or ideal that seems antithetical to one’s own sacred object or ideal. This other nation, god or ideology—by virtue of its very existence—threatens one's own nation, god or ideology. If the other nation, god or ideology is omnipotent, how can one claim--maintain the belief--that one’s own nation, god or ideology is omnipotent? 

Throughout Western history, groups have sought to affirm their own belief systems by eliminating or destroying groups of people whose beliefs contradict the beliefs of one’s own group. Phrases like “kill the infidel” or “kill the heretic” or “kill the Jew” or “kill the enemy” articulate the feeling that one must destroy another group or class of people to preserve the omnipotence of the sacred ideal that constitutes one’s own group or belief system.

One of the central themes of the Twentieth Century was the clash between the ideologies of communism and capitalism. One side declared “Kill the capitalists,” while the other side responded, “Kill the communists.” The human race nearly was destroyed because a group that embraced one ideology felt that it was impossible to exist in a world that contained a group embracing the opposing ideology.

The struggle between competing ideologies—each possessing a claim to absolute truth—is a fundamental source of collective forms of violence. The very existence of an other ideology—claiming to be absolutely true—is felt as working to undermine or destroy one’s own ideology. Acts of violence are initiated to determine—once and for all—”the truth.”