Richard John Neuhaus at First Things (subscription required) notes that in the introduction to the book From the Gulag to the Killing Fields by Paul Hollander there appears a list of eight ways in which all extremist groups, whether of the right or left, are similar. All extremist mass movements are typified by the following beliefs or attitudes:
1. Extreme hostility toward "outgroups." You are either for us or against us and any dialogue or civil conversation with the "enemy" is betrayal.
2. Complete submissiveness to "ingroups." Our party and its leaders are to be supported without question. Criticism of our side is breaking ranks and breaking ranks is treason.
3. All relationships are subordinated to the criterion of what will advance the "cause."
4. The most important thing to know about the world is that it is divided by the conflict between them and us.
5. Purely theoretical ideas which do not serve the cause are to be repressed.
6. The extension of sentiment is a sign of weakness.
7. We and our group can only survive by the manipulation of others, who are there to be manipulated.
8. The triumph of our cause will result in a harmonious world without conflict.
Communism and Naziism exhibited most or all of these traits in the twentieth century and together they made that period the most murderous in all of human history. Islamo-fascism exhibits the same traits today, and, if it is allowed to thrive, it'll do to this century what the Marxists and Nazis did to the last, or worse.
