It's not the devotion, but the acts of aggression that kills and enslaves. Mother Teresa and Ghandi, not to mention Jesus Christ show the falseness of Kestler's opinion.
The moral majorities aggressive devotion to a 'states rights' position on most such crucial issues is leading to our societies being "collectivized" just as much as any 'secular' bogeyman of Giffords.
"The continuous disasters of man's history are mainly due to his excessive capacity and urge to become identified with a tribe, nation, church or cause, and to espouse its credo uncritically and enthusiastically, even if its tenets are contrary to reason, devoid of self-interest and detrimental to the claims of self-preservation.
We are thus driven to the unfashionable conclusion that the trouble with our species is not an excess of aggression, but an excess capacity for fanatical devotion. -Arthur Koestler-
It's not the devotion, but the acts of aggression that kills and enslaves. Mother Teresa and Gandhi, not to mention Jesus Christ show the falseness of Koestler's opinion.
267 hocndoc
Most of mankind is 'aggressively, even fanatically devoted' to their 'cause'. -- Granted, our saints are rare exceptions to that rule, -- so rare that they serve to prove Koestler's point.