"Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all"
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Extremism, Gardner suggests, isn’t powered first by rage but by bad storytelling: the kind that reduces a messy world into a clean plot. His “two prime ingredients” read like a recipe for political theater - a diagnosis so simple it can fit on a placard, and a cast of “identifiable villains” sturdy enough to carry any disappointment. That pairing matters. The simplified diagnosis flatters the believer (“I see what others won’t”), while the villain provides emotional traction (“I know who to blame”). Together they turn uncertainty into certainty on demand.
Gardner’s phrasing is doing quiet work. “Excessively” concedes that simplification is normal in politics; the danger is when the simplification becomes totalizing, immune to evidence, allergic to tradeoffs. “Back of it all” hints at conspiracy thinking without needing the word. It’s not just that extremists dislike certain people; it’s the insistence on a hidden hand, an organizing evil that makes every setback feel intentional. That’s how politics becomes moral melodrama: compromise looks like complicity, nuance like weakness.
Contextually, Gardner spent his life inside institutions - universities, government service, and civic organizations - and he wrote during an era when mass media and Cold War anxieties made scapegoating a reliable shortcut. His intent isn’t to scold passion out of public life, but to warn about a psychological lure: the promise that complexity is a lie and that history can be fixed by defeating the right enemy. It’s a critique of certainty masquerading as courage.
Gardner’s phrasing is doing quiet work. “Excessively” concedes that simplification is normal in politics; the danger is when the simplification becomes totalizing, immune to evidence, allergic to tradeoffs. “Back of it all” hints at conspiracy thinking without needing the word. It’s not just that extremists dislike certain people; it’s the insistence on a hidden hand, an organizing evil that makes every setback feel intentional. That’s how politics becomes moral melodrama: compromise looks like complicity, nuance like weakness.
Contextually, Gardner spent his life inside institutions - universities, government service, and civic organizations - and he wrote during an era when mass media and Cold War anxieties made scapegoating a reliable shortcut. His intent isn’t to scold passion out of public life, but to warn about a psychological lure: the promise that complexity is a lie and that history can be fixed by defeating the right enemy. It’s a critique of certainty masquerading as courage.
Quote Details
| Topic | Reason & Logic |
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