Who Are Extremists?

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 1, 1875

Who Are Extremists?

NOTHING is more common than to hear the appellation, “extremist,” applied to an individual who is enthusiastically engaged in the advocacy or practical application of some cherished theory. Not infrequently the application seems to be entirely just; but, quite as often, the opposite is the case, especially when the individual in question is a hygienist. We purpose to consider the characteristics of extremists without attempting any technical or very concise definition of the word.

An extremist is an individual who gives undue prominence to a single principle or idea, or to a particular set of ideas. He allows his attention to become so engrossed with a favorite theme that all else is obscured. The man who has a hobby is quite sure to be an extremist. A fanatic is a typical illustration of this class of persons. The extreme individual forgets that there is no such thing as an absolute, universal law in the universe. Everything is relative, even right and wrong. All laws are interdependent, the action of each being modified by all the rest.

It is an error to suppose that it is possible to “carry the truth too far,” as we are often warned against. It is impossible to “run a principle into the ground,” as an extremist is so frequently accused of doing. Truth is truth, to the most extreme limit of its meaning. A principle is true under every circumstance, if it is true at all. Persons who are really extremists do not hold the truth. Although they may have possessed it, they have gone astray into the paths of error. It is impossible to go beyond the truth, although an easy matter to diverge from it, and this is the misfortune of extremists.

A man may totally discard the use of meat, as we have done for many years, and yet not be an extremist; but when he repudiates the use of animal food under all circumstances, he becomes extreme. That flesh is not the best food for man, nor that designed for such use by the Creator, is a principle which always remains true; but it is also true that animal food contains nourishment and will sustain life, and that its use may be justified by many possible circumstances which it is unnecessary to enumerate here. The same may be said of the use of salt and many other articles of diet which hygienists discard. It is even possible to be extreme on the question of drug medication. It may be justly said that “all drugs are poisons;” and no circumstances can change their character; but only the extremist will say that they can never be used to advantage in the treatment of disease. Although we are as thoroughly opposed as any one to the terrible abuse of drugs which we see every day in the common treatment of the sick, we might mention a score of instances in which drugs are used with the most decided benefit. Thus, one poison may be used to antidote another, as the sesquioxide of iron in poisoning by arsenic. Caustics may be used to destroy morbid growths. Anesthetics are exceedingly useful in the practice of surgery. But we will leave the further consideration of drugs for another article.

We believe in being radical, but seek to avoid being ultra. As we have already said, we would follow the truth wherever it may lead; always recognizing, however, that there are multitudes of truths, and that they are all mutually related. Extremists are usually such through ignorance or egotism; they rest satisfied with only a part of the truth, and are thus led into error.—Health Reformer.