Transcription
Some people are desperate to lose themselves. They want to find some ideology or cause to surrender to. They are ready to self-sacrifice and just need the right altar on which to do so.
These people are what Simone de Beauvoir referred to as the passionate man. And the idea came up a lot in this week's mini philosophy interview with Leor Migrod. Ziggrod has spent her entire career studying extremist ideologies, which she defines as any system of rules or narrative which is entirely inflexible. They think that this ideology is the most important thing, that this way of life is the only way of life, and the ideology comes first. It comes in front of everything.
Dufour's passionate man is somebody who presents themselves as incomplete in some way. They are broken and in need of fixing. They are a yin in need of a yang. And so they commit to some cause or ideology with their entire being. They jump into an ocean and are lost.
For Migrod, the same thing is happening with extreme ideologies because the extremist is one who adopts this fixed identity about who they are, and they judge others as whether they're followers or not. Extremism is not about fascism or communism, atheism or religion. It's about rigidity of thought and losing your autonomy. It's when somebody surrenders their own personhood to an ideology, and they become dangerous because they're willing to sacrifice your personhood as well.