The similarities between the fanatics on the left and right has always interested me. It's obvious that both are idealogical and fundamentalists in a non-religious sense. Andrew Sullivan pointed out another similarity that had eluded me all this time. They both are drawn to violence and see it as the solution to their problems.

My blog has numerous accountings of this with regards to the right, torture being one of them. The fanatical left is a tiny fringe in America so there aren't as many examples, but  one example are the minority of Anarchist protesters that think that throwing bricks through the windows of starbucks will cure the world of capitalism. The rationale for this violence makes no sense, but fanatics rarely make sense.

Unfortunately there are some fanatics that learn to wrap their insanity in semantic and syntactic tricks in order to sound reasonable and these are the fanatics that lead movements. We see this in the neocons and many of the communist movements of the past, we also see it in the terrorists of today.

Speaking of terrorists, today is a significant day in this regard. It is the anniversary of 9/11, an event caused by fanatics that view violence as the first solution to their perceived problems. The lesson we should learn from 9/11 is to recognize the fanaticism that is lured by the appeal of violence both in those that would use it against us and those that want to react in kind.