FANATIC

FANATIC

Why are so many, including me at times, turning into a Fanatic?

Perhaps it is Modernity itself.

Many of us are feeling deeply alone, disconnected.

With no meaning. No purpose. No soul.

And for many, we either have a struggle that we think we will never win or a life of physical ease but psychological stress – which is no what we were designed for. We thrive in struggles – as long as we are with others – as long that the struggle is understood and the struggle brings meaning and purpose to life. As long as the struggle has a chance, even if slim, of victory in some shape and form.

Modernity must be understood for the evil it has become. And confronted. Somehow it now promotes a lack of faith in any objective truth that allows us to navigate the shoals of life’s disaster and uncertainties. I am not alone in seeing and feeling this way.

Attention is the Beginning of Devotion – Poet Mary Oliver

What I and many others believe is the social-economc-political “civilization” we live in is not healthy and is making many of us sick. The addiction and loneliness epidemics can be interpreted as indicators of this illness. That means that all those addicts and lonely folks are the collateral damage caused by a way of life which is, at its deepest level, suffering from a kind of insanity. Enough of this philosophical stuff – let’s make this concrete. My wife sent me an article today from England about how cell phones damage our mental health. This is a good example of what I mean.

Until quite recently, social interaction was in person, and with context – meaning facial expressions, vocal tone, eye contact and body language. We learn a lot not just from someone’s words but their non-verbal cues. Modern digital messaging has removed this added dimension. In its place, we rely on short, text-based interactions that are stripped of nuance and prone to misinterpretation. And studies show that it is generally more stressful than in-person interaction. For instance, a 2022 study in Boston looked at various forms of communication on levels of participant stress. They found that days with more frequent text messaging were linked to greater stress and more negative feelings, while days with in-person contact were linked to feeling more positive. A 2026 review of numerous studies on texting versus in-person interaction found the same: quite simply, our wellbeing is higher with in-person interaction versus screen-based communication.

Which brings me to two blue ticks, which signal if a message has been read, a step even further than just pure texting used to be. As such, it’s brought a new source of stress and emotional burden for many people. From a neuroscience perspective, delayed or ignored messages can activate the same brain regions associated with physical pain, particularly the anterior cingulate cortex and the anterior insula. This is known as social pain, and it reflects the way our brains respond to exclusion or rejection. [1]

So how have I become a fanatic wrt cell phones? I turn it off at night. I only check my messages twice a day. I don’t hold it against my ear when talking. I did not allow my kids to have one until they were 16. I try to meet in person when I can – while recognizing the great benefits of tech like ZOOM that allows me to connect with folks far away.

I want to mention two people who are also struggling with modernity – Paul Kingsnorth [ a “recovering environmentalists famous for his Dark Mountain Manifesto which I recommend you read [3] and Iain McGilchrist. In his recent book ‘Against the Machine’ Paul Kingsnorth [2] illuminates the spiritual alienation of modernity. “You are living in a metastasising machine which is closing in around you,” he asserts, “polluting your skies and your woods and your past and your imagination”. Kingsnorth prescribes rage against the machine but also “a counter-revolution: a restoration” . He argues that technology and the resultant technocracy have created a fundamentally inhumane world.  We don’t see The universe as an organism, as a being, anymore; we now see it as a Machine and a thing to be used and controlled – its soul is dead and never was in our machine world. Is this why so many of us feel that the modern world is somehow “wrong” and so de-humanizing?

 

Iain Mcilchrist path of life as a neuroresearcher is completely different than Paul’s but he has come to a very similar conclusion. In his books The Master and his Emmisary and the Matter with Things he explains how our society is sick in that our consciousness is only directed by a left brain, controlling and focusing type of thinking that is murdering the natural world – as it is profitable to do so. [4] After spending his life in the pursuit of finding way to escape this death trap he has come to the point where he sees a spiritual path which re-animates the soul of the world – and of course our souls too, as a necessary antidote to the deadly Hydra called Modernity that we have created. Here is a recent lecture on this topic that was organized by the International Society for Science and Religion [5].

A sick and destructive fanatic is a deeply committed person to a cause with no love in his heart. – Bangamiki Habyarimana

So in what ways am I becoming a health- giving, life-affirming fanatic? I hope to be a:

Fanatic for being kind

Fanatic for Truth that heals

Fanatic for sharing

Fanatic for not being disconnected from reality

Fanatic for facing the nasty stuff in life and then allowing this to move me to the joyful ways to live

Fanatic for seeing issues also from he other persons perspective

Fanatic for living totally in THIS momentum

Fanatic for discovering who I can trust and who I cannot

Fanatic for high income equality

Fanatic for seeing the cup 1/2 full and never 1/2 empty

Fanatic for high social cohesion

Fanatic for having friends drop in unannounced and loving it

Fanatic for being grateful

Fanatic for seeing the best in people while accepting their weakness without judgement

References

1. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/apr/25/phones-social-media-damaging-mental-health

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SU39gdujp0&t=365s video summary of the book

3. https://dark-mountain.net/about/manifesto/

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDC9W1K4Rso Iain McGilchrist: How to escape left-brain thinking

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxsP0FemR6c Science and Religion – Dr Iain McGilchrist