If there is a difference it’s probably in perception. My righteous warrior is your obnoxious zealot.

As others have said, I think the most important thing to bear in mind is that we could be wrong. About anything. Or everything. We are all zealous on some matters. Not everyone can be right, but we can all be wrong.

Oh, and I’d like to add one to your list. People who willingly use Microsoft products when they are aware of the alternatives should be locked in a small box with spikes on the inside

I like the theory. It makes me feel better about it.

Yes? No? Maybe?

I don’t think anyone in this country whips up the rednecks to more damaging effect than Alan Jones. His call to arms during the Cronulla riots was the best example.

I always think of a scene from Angels in America when I think of Jones – the sad, closeted little man who pulls strings and makes powerful friends to compensate for abject loneliness. The speech from conservative gay lawyer Roy Cohn:

AIDS. Homosexual. Gay. Lesbian. You think these are names that tell you who a person sleeps with, but they don’t tell you that. Like all labels they tell you one thing, and one thing only: Where does an individual so identified fit into the food chain, the pecking order? Not ideology or sexual taste, but something much simpler: clout. Not who I fuck or who fucks me, but who will come to the phone when I call, who owes me favors. This is what a label refers to. Now to someone who does not understand this, a homosexual is what I am because I have sex with men, but really this is wrong. A homosexual is somebody who, in 15 years of trying cannot get a pissant anit-discrimination bill through the city council. A homosexual is somebody who knows nobody and who nobody knows. Who has zero clout.

I have sex with men. But unlike nearly every other man of whom this is true, I bring the guy I’m screwing to the White House and President Reagan smiles at us and shakes his hand.

Campaigning for the purpose of personal gain makes you horrible; fighting for the moral good makes you admirable.

In my opinion, motivation is the only reliable measure of character.

Life is too short not to speak up about what you believe in but the way your message is delivered is important (real zealots don’t realise this). I think that conversation, debate and exposure are more persuasive than bloody minded conversion! If only all the Andrew Bolts of the world would realise that because they speak from a place of hate and intolerance, I’m just not listening.

If such a thing exists, should we genetically breed it out of society?

I believe love is inevitably exclusive. Those that say they have love for everyone invariably are more selective. There’s a wonderful irony in religion preaching tolerance yet certain faiths are extraordinarily intolerant of difference.

Thanks for the feedback! Keep reading…