FUNDAMENTALISM., THEY NAME IS NOW EVERYWHERE

Turn on any channel, read any editorial, check any website....! People are as angry right now as nature. Everything once again seems out of joint. Well, when in history hasn't it? While the doomsayers go for the easy explanation -- it's the end times -- we're not getting off that easy. These times are not likely to end; only to grow more angry.

This is when scared people look for bold, unflinching leaders. Voices in the darkness that can lead us into the light. And sure enough there are always would-be prophets willing to take the job. Overseas there are Islamic fundamentalists waging wars against the Great Satan. Here at home, fundamentalism is likewise in full play, raising crusades against anything with the name "big" to it. Big government, big taxes, big hierarchies.

True to its name, fundamentalism is a belief in the basics. It's a mind-set that intuitively rejects complicated, high-sounding agendas. Fundamentalists -- be they in religion, politics, diplomacy -- like the way Clint Eastwood rides tall in the saddle and shoots straight from the hip. Life is a frontier town where parsons and sheriffs and school marms just get in the way of fast justice and quick results.

Humanity has had a heap of such no-questions-asked gunslingers. At different times they have been called chieftains, kings, pharaohs, emperors, fuhrers. Their image is in their armies, but their real power is in their promises. "The world is not complicated; to master it, you need only to close ranks and follow me!"

In a democracy like ours, such leaders have to work a little harder to get through the thicket of cumbersome matters like filing your credentials (and now lets not forget your birth certificate)...organizing your campaign ...finding rich backers...manipulating mass media...and at all times calling your rivals too weak to lead, lacking your kind of fire-in-the-belly.

We've had a long litany of these guys. As soon as Washington took office there were wheelers-and-dealers like Aron Burr (an actual gunslinger who killed Alexander Hamilton with the last recorded duel in the D. C. area). A century later, FDR had to compete with a chorus of brash, follow-me voices during the crush of the Great Depression. And now -- right on time! -- the Great Recession has found its very own fundamentalists.

Emotional and economic fundamentalists who seem to crop up overnight, full-grown and fully-ready to preach their high-charged simplicities to a people hungry for someone to say-it-loud-and-say-it-clear. So while serious minds hover over complicated agendas, the latest trinity offers us fundamentally simple solutions.

Their names...? Well, the names change with each shift in the angry winds. As of this writing they include: Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, and Donald Trump. But don't get too accustomed to the names. While the fundamentalist message remains the same, the names of the messengers will probably keep changing. Just park your brains at the door, and listen in. They really can't save your dreams, but for a very little while they can drug your fears.