I think a lot of Americans -young or old- don't have a sense of our own history.
The one thing that is true of every age of American history is fanaticism.
“We cannot just immigrate to these shores and try to farm. We are the chosen people, a city set on a hill, and anyone who opposes us opposes the will of God, and so we have permission to kill Native Americans.”
THAT's fanaticism.
We cannot just come to America to establish a colony and make money.
We are coming here to avoid religious persecution, even though very few Puritans were being persecuted in the classic sense of being burnt at the stake, et cetera, by the Church of England when they left.
It Was a Theological Discussion and Disagreement.
And that was all it was.
But the level of fanaticism in the founding of the northern states remains with us to this day.
Founded Upon Fanaticism.