Michael – “It seems to me that True Believers are gripped with some sort of Messianic Fervour. This I intrinsically distrust.”
Imagine someone comes into the busiest room of a big party frantically shouting “fire, fire, everyone get out!” – how do you tell whether they’ve found a fire, or they’re “gripped with some sort of Messianic Fervour”? The two look the same.
Maybe if they’ve been going on about it for quite a while, getting more and more worked up at everyone’s inaction. Maybe if they have a team of fire safety officers saying the same thing. Maybe if authorities are declaring an emergency.
Or you could go and have a look. If there’s smoke, and you can see flickering down the stairwell, there could well be a fire.
But maybe they should campaign, and try to get elected first…