Extremism

While commenting on various post so time back I found a great one dealing with extremism at Social Sense titled "Right Cross" this post is thought provoking. The following is a summary of my comment.

Extremist and extremism are often misused and confusing terms to the casual political observer. Often the MSM is more likely to use the term when describing people on the right. Is actually comes down to the position of the person using the term. Someone on the far right might easily think of himself as moderate and someone who is a so-called moderate might be branded an extremist by many on the far left. In reality extremism and moderate have little meaning if one does not know the true position on the person using the words. This is a necessity in order to evaluate the position of someone. When I hear these words moderate or extremist I always ask who is saying that and what is their position. By using these words one is more likely branding himself than others, with what ever label he uses.

Today's extremist could be tomorrows moderate or today's moderate could become tomorrows extremist. Its not how others look at you and your positions, but rather how you look at yourself and your views that really counts. Things are always changing and the old and new orders will always be in conflict and will continue to replace each other as part of this protracted conflict. So in reality the words have little meaning other than to accentuate one's own position.