Similarity of Extremism

It happens every now and then: we see a middle-aged or elderly man, making a fiery speech to a cheering crowd about the way he thinks the world should be. It can be Hitler or Stalin, it can be Hassan Nasrallah or Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and it can be Kim Jong-Il or Hugo Chavez.

That man will always say roughly the same things: he will convince the listeners of their moral, intellectual or physical superiority over other people. He will also say that "the other people" oppressed and robbed them of some naturally-given rights. They will also refer to some golden age in which things were different, and mention names of rulers or leaders who were usually involved in unnecessary wars, which they lost.

He will try to mimic the success of the west by building ridiculous and pointlessly large projects. He will also organize mock elections and establish several newspapers and a TV channel, in order to promote his agendas and show the world that he represents "the voice of the people".

The usual target of of the hatred will be the Western Civilization, which he will always accuse of putting an emphasis on material life and having no moral values. The USA and Britain will be his mortal enemies and he will threaten or even attack his neighbors.

He will have some like-minded allies who will support him and he will find clever ways to convince people in the Western, open societies to become his followers. Leaders in the West will try to talk to him and reach agreements in exchange for a substantial sacrifice. He will not hesitate to abuse and hurt his foreign supporters and breach the agreements when he no longer needs them.

My point is that all extreme ideologies have a lot in common. They also have a common agenda: world domination. They will all use similar means and methods to achieve their goals and will cause a lot of suffering while doing so. They will also, eventually, fail.