Fanaticism is a belief or behavior involving uncritical zeal

Zeal

Zeal may refer to:* Zeal, Zeal * Diligence, the theological virtue opposite to acedia.* Zealotry, excessive ideological zeal* Zeal , an internet directory* Kingdom of Zeal, a kingdom in the Chrono Trigger video game...

, particularly for an extreme religious

Religion

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

 or political

Politics

Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...

 cause or in some cases sports, or with an obsessive enthusiasm for a pastime or hobby. Philosopher George Santayana

George Santayana

George Santayana was a philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. A lifelong Spanish citizen, Santayana was raised and educated in the United States and identified himself as an American. He wrote in English and is generally considered an American man of letters...

 defines fanaticism as "redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim"; according to Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...

, "A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject". By either description the fanatic displays very strict standards and little tolerance for contrary ideas or opinions.

In his book Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk, Neil Postman

Neil Postman

Neil Postman was an American author, media theorist and cultural critic, who is best known by the general public for his 1985 book about television, Amusing Ourselves to Death. For more than forty years, he was associated with New York University...

 states that "the key to all fanatical beliefs is that they are self-confirming....(some beliefs are) fanatical not because they are 'false', but because they are expressed in such a way that they can never be shown to be false."

The behavior of a fan with overwhelming enthusiasm for a given subject is differentiated from the behavior of a fanatic by the fanatic's violation of prevailing social norms. Though the fan's behavior may be judged as odd or eccentric, it does not violate such norms. A fanatic differs from a crank

Crank (person)

"Crank" is a pejorative term used for a person who unshakably holds a belief that most of his or her contemporaries consider to be false. A "cranky" belief is so wildly at variance with commonly accepted belief as to be ludicrous...

, in that a crank is defined as a person who holds a position or opinion which is so far from the norm as to appear ludicrous and/or probably wrong, such as a belief in a Flat Earth

Flat Earth

The Flat Earth model is a belief that the Earth's shape is a plane or disk. Most ancient cultures have had conceptions of a flat Earth, including Greece until the classical period, the Bronze Age and Iron Age civilizations of the Near East until the Hellenistic period, India until the Gupta period ...

. In contrast, the subject of the fanatic's obsession

Fixation (psychology)

Fixation: 'concept originated by Sigmund Freud to denote the persistence of anachronistic sexual traits'. Subsequently '"Fixation" acquired a broader connotation...

 may be "normal", such as an interest in religion or politics, except that the scale of the person's involvement, devotion, or obsession with the activity or cause is abnormal or disproportionate.

Categories

• Consumer
  Consumer
  Consumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary.-Economics and marketing:...
  
   fanaticism - the level of involvement or interest one has in the liking of a particular person, group, trend, artwork or idea.
• Religious fanaticism
  Religious fanaticism
  Religious fanaticism is fanaticism related to a person's, or a group's, devotion to a religion. However, religious fanaticism is a subjective evaluation defined by the culture context that is performing the evaluation. What constitutes fanaticism in another's behavior or belief is determined by the...
  
   - considered by some to be the most extreme form of religious fundamentalism. Entail promoting religious views.
• Ethnic or racial supremacist fanaticism.
• Nationalistic or patriotic fanaticism.
• Political, ideological
  Ideology
  An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
  
   fanaticism.
• Emotional fanaticism.
• Leisure fanaticism - high levels of intensity, enthusiasm, commitment and zeal shown for a particular leisure activity.
• Sports fanaticism - high levels of intensity surrounding sporting events. This is either done based on the belief that extreme fanaticism can alter games for one's favorite team (Ex: Knight Krew), or because the person uses sports activities as an ultra-masculine "proving ground" for brawls, as in the case of football hooliganism
  Football hooliganism
  Football hooliganism, sometimes referred to by the British media as the English Disease, is unruly and destructive behaviour—such as brawls, vandalism and intimidation—by association football club fans...
  
  .

See also

• Antifanaticism: A Tale of the South
  Antifanaticism: A Tale of the South
  Antifanaticism: A Tale of the South is an 1853 plantation fiction novel by Martha Haines Butt.- Overview :Antifanaticism is one of several examples of the plantation literature genre that appeared in reaction to the anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, which had been...
  
  
• Enthusiasm
  Enthusiasm
  Enthusiasm originally meant inspiration or possession by a divine afflatus or by the presence of a god. Johnson's Dictionary, the first comprehensive dictionary of the English language, defines enthusiasm as "a vain belief of private revelation; a vain confidence of divine favour or...
  
  
• Extremism
  Extremism
  Extremism is any ideology or political act far outside the perceived political center of a society; or otherwise claimed to violate common moral standards...
  
  
• Fanboy
• Fixation (psychology)
  Fixation (psychology)
  Fixation: 'concept originated by Sigmund Freud to denote the persistence of anachronistic sexual traits'. Subsequently '"Fixation" acquired a broader connotation...
  
  
• Obsession (psychology)
• Religious fanaticism
  Religious fanaticism
  Religious fanaticism is fanaticism related to a person's, or a group's, devotion to a religion. However, religious fanaticism is a subjective evaluation defined by the culture context that is performing the evaluation. What constitutes fanaticism in another's behavior or belief is determined by the...
  
  
• Zealotry
  Zealotry
  Zealotry was originally a political movement in 1st century Second Temple Judaism which sought to incite the people of Iudaea Province to rebel against the Roman Empire and expel it from the Holy land by force of arms, most notably during the Great Jewish Revolt...