Extremism can be in thought and in action. Extremism in thought is often called as exclusivism: where people believe, for example, if they are religious, that their religious tradition has exclusive access to God. Exclusivism can make people disrespectful or dismissive of others, but that itself does not make them violent. However, exclusivism can degenerate to extremism: where people start taking extreme actions against those who do not agree with their beliefs and their traditions. Such extremism is the cause of incredible violence. So while exclusivism itself is bad, it’s tolerable. Extremism is intolerable.

Watch this content at: Two kinds of extremism

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13.08 Humility; pridelessness; nonviolence; tolerance; simplicity; approaching a bona fide spiritual master; cleanliness; steadiness; self-control; … [– all these I declare to be knowledge, and besides this whatever there may be is ignorance.]