I feel no different about zealots than you do, but believe philosophy and principles are defenses, not a primary cause of such things. People bereft of their own ideas will accept almost anyone else's.

The communists of the Soviet Union rode limousines, and lived in nice houses and had their own stores. They talked communism, but everyone knew what they really believed in was power, privilege, and the good life for the leaders. Basically, not that much different than any other dictator. Castro and Chavez are, IMO, basically in this category.

Pol Pot? Now he believed in communism.

I would take Al Gore any day, with all his jabber about the Earth and conservation, while flying private jets and living in nice houses, over someone like Ralph Nader, who believes in austerity, and if given enough power, would make sure you do, too.

In medieval times, you might tolerate a bishop who wore jeweled rings on his fingers, and lived in the nicest house in town. From the wild-eyed monk in the ragged cloak, God save you.

I think you already know what I think about radical Islam. Say what you want about the hard-drinking, limo-driving kings of Saudi Arabia, you get the impression that they aren't going to stay up nights thinking of ways to rule the planet when there's good Western money to toss around on the good life.

I do bitch a lot about hypocrisy, but when you think about it sometimes, it's still a hell of an improvement on fanaticism.

This line of thinking goes back a long way, and I'm sure there are sayings by great people on the subject, but none come to mind.

Well, maybe a couple...

It is said that science will dehumanise people and turn them into numbers. That is false, tragically false. Look for yourself. This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. This is where people were turned into numbers. Into this pond were flushed the ashes of some four million people. And that was not done by gas. It was done by arrogance. It was done by dogma. It was done by ignorance. When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods.

Science is a very human form of knowledge. We are always at the brink of the known, we always feel forward for what is to be hoped. Every judgment in science stands on the edge of error, and is personal. Science is a tribute to what we can know although we are fallible. In the end the words were said by Oliver Cromwell: 'I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken'.

I owe it as a scientist to my friend Leo Szilard, I owe it as a human being to the many members of my family who died at Auschwitz, to stand here by the pond as a survivor and a witness. We have to cure ourselves of the itch for absolute knowledge and power. We have to close the distance between the push-button order and the human act. We have to touch people.

--Jacob Bronowski, "The Ascent of Man: Knowledge or Certainty"

Political tags--such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and. so forth--are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.

--Robert A. Heinlein