You’d think that Londoners should be inured to terror. They lived through the WWII blitz. Through IRA bombings in the 1990s. Through coordinated attacks on subways and buses in 2005. And during the Brexit campaign, the murder of MP Jo Cox.

            But it took three attacks in three months – on parliament at Westminster in March, at the Manchester concert in May, and now on London Bridge in June – to provoke Prime Minister Teresa May into declaring that there was “far too much tolerance of extremism” in the United Kingdom.

            The mass media immediately construed her words as a slap at Islamic extremism. The Independent trumpeted that all recent attacks were “bound together by the single evil ideology of Islamic extremism.”

            Indeed, ISIS did claim credit for the last three attacks. But Jo Cox was murdered by a known right-wing white supremacist. And IRA attacks in the 1990s had nothing to do with Islam. Or, for that matter, with Catholicism.

            Elsewhere in her comments, Teresa May did identify radical Islamists. But her reference to “too much tolerance” was more general.

Two ends of a continuum

            How her remarks affected Thursday’s election, I cannot guess. But her comment gives me an opportunity to beat one of my favourite drums.

            Because there is no such thing as a single extreme. Like Newton’s laws of motion, for every extreme there exists an equal and opposite extreme. And both should be avoided.

            I first became aware of this “law of extremes” one day when I picked up a box of iodized salt in a grocery store. I seem to recall that all salt used to be iodized. It contained trace amounts of iodine to prevent humans from developing goiters.

            I also recall that we once dabbed iodine liberally on cuts and scrapes. We don’t anymore. Iodine is considered too toxic to be applied indiscriminately.

            A paradox. How can something too toxic for general use be so necessary that everyone needs it?

            The answer is that both extremes are harmful. Too much kills; too little imperils. But somewhere in between is the “just right” dosage.

            When I looked around the world, I found the same “just right” formula almost everywhere.

            Too little water, we die of dehydration; too much, we drown.

            Too much fire, we burn – ourselves, our forests, our cities. Too little, we freeze (especially in Canada).

            Too little sunshine leads to Vitamin D deficiency: rickets, weak bones, skeletal deformity. Too much causes melanoma.

The Goldilocks solution

            Somewhere between the extremes of too much and too little lies the “just right” amount. I think of it as the “Goldilocks” solution – the moderate middle between two extremes. (Donald Trump baffles us because he has no moderate middle; he consists entirely of extremes.)

            We tend to assume that if one extreme is wrong, we should espouse its opposite. If this is bad, that must be good.

            Nope. Not so.

            We no longer tolerate strapping students in schools. Or parents beating their children. Even if physical force was intended to teach discipline. That is now seen as abuse. Instead, we’ve gone to the opposite extreme. Teachers dare not hug a child, even if that child desperately needs some physical closeness.

            Child abuse – whether emotional, physical, or sexual – is clearly wrong. But its opposite, child neglect, is equally wrong.

            The right amount of physical contact is a constantly moving target. An infant should nuzzle at a mother’s nipple; a teenager shouldn’t.

            Indeed, I’ve argued that you only find the “just right” level when you realize you’ve crossed an invisible line. Either too much, or too little. You have to be willing to back off. Without lurching to the opposite extreme.

Intentional isolation

            So what’s the opposite of the extremism for which Teresa May claims we have “too much tolerance”? I suggest it’s apathy. Deliberate ignorance. Closing one’s eyes; turning one’s back. What can one person do? I’m all right, Jack; screw you.

            As Edmund Burke said, long ago, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.”

            Britons let government decimate their police forces. Slash their social services. Let corporations manipulate national policies for short-term benefits. Now they’re paying the price for personal isolation.

            I’m sure Teresa May did not have that kind of extremism in mind when she said, “The whole of our country needs to come together to take on this extremism. We need to live our lives not as a series of segregated, separated communities, but as one truly United Kingdom.”

            But she was right.

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Copyright © 2017 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups encouraged; links from other blogs welcomed; all other rights reserved.

            To send comments, to subscribe, or to unsubscribe, write jimt@quixotic.ca

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YOUR TURN

In her response to my column last week, wondering how I would have reacted to the race-and-religion-based attack on the train in Portland, Oregon, Isabel Gibson noted, “It's worth remembering that there is more than one way to counter a threat. I've seen one British video addressing these situations where the attacks are, so far, only verbal.  It recommended ignoring the perpetrator and just moving over to sit with, and talk to, the person or people being abused.

            “I don't know whether that would have had a different outcome in this situation, but it might have.”

Tom Watson wrote, “I'm with you. I know what I hope I would have done on that train in Portland, but can only consider the question in the abstract, not in real time, and it is a haunting question.

            “As for the brain and its evolution, I hadn't previously been familiar with Michael Dowd's analysis. Is it the case that there are individuals whose brain never developed to the Higher Porpoise stage, stopped at the Monkey Mind, or maybe even the Lizard Brain stage? Does Donald Trump just refuse to use his Higher Porpoise part and just stick with the fight-or-flight Lizard Brain part?

            “I was also thinking of a couple of young people who are now in their late 20s and still unable to focus sufficiently long enough to maintain a job. Seem stuck in the Monkey Mind.”

Robert Caughell also picked up the Trump theme: “With the election of Donald Trump people think that they have the right to berate, attack anyone who is not like them, does not think like them. Donald Trump seems to be obsessed with Muslims while home-grown white supremacists have probably killed more people with school shootings, the Oklahoma Federal building bombing, etc.”

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TECHNICAL STUFF

If you want to comment on something, write me at jimt@quixotic.ca. Or just hit the “Reply” button.

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            My webpage is up and running again -- thanks to Wayne Irwin and ChurchWeb Canada. You can now access current columns and five years of archives at http://quixotic.ca

            I write a second column each Wednesday, called Soft Edges, which deals somewhat more gently with issues of life and faith. To sign up for Soft Edges, write to me directly at the address above, or send a blank e-mail to softedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca

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PROMOTION STUFF…

            Ralph Milton ’s latest project is called “Sing Hallelujah” -- the world’s first video hymnal. It consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at www.singhallelujah.ca

            Ralph’s HymnSight webpage is still up, http://www.hymnsight.ca, with a vast gallery of photos you can use to enhance the appearance of the visual images you project for liturgical use (prayers, responses, hymn verses, etc.)

            Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://www.churchwebcanada.ca>

            I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, www.traditionaliconoclast.com

            Alva Wood’s satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town -- not particularly religious, but fun; alvawood@gmail.com to get onto her mailing list.

            Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatso@gmail.com or twatson@sentex.net