Prometheus 6

Since I'm not a psychiatrist, I consulted the work of various experts in the field in order to get a better understanding of the fanatical thinking that is driving the Bush administration's agenda ? and scaring the daylights out of a growing number of observers.

Dr. Norman Doidge, professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto, lists among the telltale symptoms of fanatics: an intolerance of dissent; a doctrine riddled with contradictions; the belief that one's cause has been blessed or even commanded by God; and the use of reinforcement techniques, such as repetition, to spread one's message.

Sound like anyone you know? George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Karl Rove, Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, come on down!

According to Doidge, one of the essential features of fanatics is their certainty that not only is their cause good "but that it is the only good, an absolute good." Or, as President Bush famously declared: "There is no in-between, as far as I'm concerned. Either you're with us or you're against us."