Passion vs. Fanatics

I spent Canada day on my final rafting excursion at Owl Rafting.

It was a 5 hour drive from the wonderful white water rapids of the Ottawa river to our home back in Toronto.

While furiously scratching the mosquito bite, --of which I took a picture of, because I was waiting for the mosquito to finish drinking my blood and take back it's poison from my skin so it won't itch (which I now realize is a MYTH)-- I had an interesting conversation with my parents about fanatics.

What is fanatics?

Dictionary definition: a person filled with excessive and single-minded zeal

Dad's definition: a person who thinks they're right and have the only possibly correct opinion. They're close-minded to other possibilities and force others to believe what they do.

My definition: basically what the other two definitions above cover, with an addition: Hate. 

Hate makes all the difference because that is what makes fanaticism a negative force. 

It is what separates fanaticism from passion and obsession .

While we were coming up with these definitions we had religious fanatics in mind.

But though it is the most popular example of fanaticism it is definitely not the most common or dangerous.

The worst fanatics are found on the internet,
(according to me, a young internet dwelling nobody).

Don't get me wrong. I love the internet, as I love religion. But there is good and bad in everything. 

Which is why it is important to know your stuff.

Why do I believe the worst of fanatics are from our beloved internet?

Two things:

1. lots of freedom

2. little social responsibility

Examples:

Reddit is one of many wonderful online communities dedicated to the freedom of expressing and sharing ideas. But this also means that people are free to hate. And the amount of hate generated is scary. Some of the people attracted to this great site may get a sharp shock when they come across some of the very opinionated people. My little brother was one of them.

Ask.fm is an example of little social responsibility. Being a site where people can post questions on other users' walls anonymously has proved to have a bounty of negative effects. The ability to do things unidentified has empowered bullies to get away with harassing their victims. Having the veil of anonymity to protect them, they have no responsibility for the actions.

So that's my thoughts on Passion and Fanatics, 
which I was supposed to post a while ago and only got to it now...



Truth be told, Blogger never ceases to get on my nerves. If it weren't for the annoying habit it has of completely disregarding all my font and text edits and putting in random spaces in the post, my updates would be a lot more frequent and consistent. Because I can only put up with Blogger's annoyances for so much, my inner perfectionist allows me only these rare posts. Pce.