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%RESPECT SUPPORT COMPETE COOPERATE BEST ACCEPT GOOD+930312
 %FUNDAMENTALIST EXTREME CONSERVATIVE VIOLENCE EVIL 930312

     Communities which show great respect for and strongly
support  individuals who compete intensely for the  status
of being best  in  what  they  do---are  communities which
encourage the development of fundamentalist sects.

     Fundamentalist  sects  seek to be best  in  terms  of
their   own   selected  ideals  and  values.     Differing
fundamentalist sects each regard themselves as  being best
in   terms   of  conflicting  ideals  and  values.   Their
competitive efforts are  not based upon one common set  of
rules for  a common game  which  all of them agree to play
together with a common referee.   They compete in games of
mutual self deception in which they seek to heighten their
own self esteem; by having the best set of ideals, values,
principles, rules, prohibitions,  taboos,  and grounds for
mutual excommunication.

     Fundamentalists do not share a set of ideals, values,
principles  and   rules  which  serve  as  the  basis  for
cooperation     in     conflict     resolution    efforts.
Fundamentalists   seek   to  distinguish   themselves   by
selecting ideals, values, principles and rules in terms of
which they can  see themselves as winning in a competition
for having the best ideals,  values, principles and rules;
and for being best in fulfilling their own ideals, values,
principles and rules.

     Fundamentalists promote misunderstanding,  ignorance,
conflict  perpetuation,   and  violence  because  they can
thereby heighten their own sense of self esteem;  and they
do not know better ways of heightening their own  sense of
self  esteem.    They do not know true love which  is  the
basis  of healthy self esteem,  because they have not know
people who have  been free to give the gifts of true love;
e.g.,  the gifts  of true security,   openness,   honesty,
affection,  vulnerability,  intimacy,  spirituality,   and
sexuality.   In the absence of such true gifts they engage
in  conflicting games  of mutual self deception---as means
to a false sense of superiority and self esteem.

     Communities which  strongly emphasize competition  as
the  means  to  earning  respect,   praise,   support  and
acceptance---in the  absence  of an  equal  emphasis  upon
cooperation,   conflict  resolution,  mutual tolerance and
balanced respect;  thereby  encourage  the  development of
fundamentalists  sects  which  promote  deep  and enduring
misunderstandings,  ignorance, conflict perpetuation,  and
violence---because  they  can thereby  heighten  their own
sense of self esteem.

     For a  more  complete  study  of  fundamentalism  see
writings  by  Martin  Marty  and a  team  of  scholars who
conducted an  extensive study of the nature  of  religious
fundamentalism in the early 1990's.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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