--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: William Butler Yeats’s “Second Coming”…" description: "\"“William Butler Yeats’s “Second Coming” seems perfectly to render our present predicament: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ebe/slavoj-i-ek-1738_islam_william-butler-yeats-s-second-coming-see_795436.jpg" --- # William Butler Yeats’s “Second Coming” seems perfectly to… ![“William Butler Yeats’s “Second Coming” seems perfectly to render our present predicament: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.” This is an excellent description of the current split between anaemic liberals and impassioned fundamentalists. “The best”…” quote by Slavoj Žižek](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ebe/slavoj-i-ek-1738_islam_william-butler-yeats-s-second-coming-see_795436.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ebe/slavoj-i-ek-1738_islam_william-butler-yeats-s-second-coming-see_795436.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ebe/slavoj-i-ek-1738_islam_william-butler-yeats-s-second-coming-see_795436.jpg) > ““William Butler Yeats’s “Second Coming” seems perfectly to render our present predicament: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.” This is an excellent description of the current split between anaemic liberals and impassioned fundamentalists. “The best” are no longer able to fully engage, while “the worst” engage in racist, religious, sexist fanaticism. However, are the terrorist fundamentalists, be they Christian or Muslim, really fundamentalists in the authentic sense of the term? Do they really believe? What they lack is a feature that is easy to discern in all authentic fundamentalists, from Tibetan Buddhists to the Amish in the U.S.: the absence of resentment and envy, the deep indifference towards the non-believers’ way of life. If today’s so-called fundamentalists really believe they have their way to truth, why should they feel threatened by non-believers, why should they envy them? When a Buddhist encounters a Western hedonist, he hardly condemns him. He just benevolently notes that the hedonist’s search for happiness is self-defeating. In contrast to true fundamentalists, the terrorist pseudo-fundamentalists are deeply bothered, intrigued, fascinated by the sinful life of the non-believers. One can feel that, in fighting the sinful Other, they are fighting their own temptation. These so-called Christian or Muslim fundamentalists are a disgrace to true fundamentalists. It is here that Yeats’s diagnosis falls short of the present predicament: the passionate intensity of a mob bears witness to a lack of true conviction. Deep in themselves, terrorist fundamentalists also lack true conviction-their violent outbursts are proof of it. How fragile the belief of a Muslim must be, if he feels threatened by a stupid caricature in a low-circulation Danish newspaper. The fundamentalist Islamic terror is not grounded in the terrorists’ conviction of their superiority and in their desire to safeguard their cultural-religious identity from the onslaught of global consumerist civilization. The problem with fundamentalists is not that we consider them inferior to us, but rather that they themselves secretly consider themselves inferior. This is why our condescending, politically correct assurances that we feel no superiority towards them only make them more furious and feeds their resentment. The problem is not cultural difference (their effort to preserve their identity), but the opposite fact that the fundamentalists are already like us, that secretly they have already internalized our standards and measure themselves by them. (This clearly goes for the Dalai Lama, who justifies Tibetan Buddhism in Western terms of the pursuit of happiness and avoidance of pain.) Paradoxically, what the fundamentalists really lack is precisely a dose of that true “racist” conviction of one’s own superiority.”” [Slavoj Žižek](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/slavoj-i-ek/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Yeats’s line about conviction and intensity mischaracterizes modern zealots, who lack true belief and are driven by envy and fear rather than authentic faith. **In simple terms:** Modern zealots lack true belief and are driven by envy. Key Takeaway Question the depth of conviction behind extremist passion. Themes extremism conviction envy authenticity politics identity Mood critical analytical provocative Type political philosophical sociological When to use this quote - political activism - religious discourse - media analysis - education curricula Key Concepts psychology sociology philosophy Questions to Reflect On - Do you distinguish between genuine belief and performative zeal? - How can societies foster authentic conviction without fear? 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Return hate in kind (ness) for proper netiquette. Love Muslims alike.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-chiles/no-hate-speech-online-is-a-social-media-netiquette-rule-return-hate/) [David Chiles](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-chiles/) [Browse all 6,032 Islam quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/islam/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“William Butler Yeats’s “Second Coming” seems perfectly to render our present predicament: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.” This is an excellent description of the current split between anaemic liberals and impassioned fundamentalists. “The best” are no longer able to fully engage, while “the worst” engage in racist, religious, sexist fanaticism. However, are the terrorist fundamentalists, be they Christian or Muslim, really fundamentalists in the authentic sense of the term? Do they really believe? What they lack is a feature that is easy to discern in all authentic fundamentalists, from Tibetan Buddhists to the Amish in the U.S.: the absence of resentment and envy, the deep indifference towards the non-believers’ way of life. If today’s so-called fundamentalists really believe they have their way to truth, why should they feel threatened by non-believers, why should they envy them? When a Buddhist encounters a Western hedonist, he hardly condemns him. He just benevolently notes that the hedonist’s search for happiness is self-defeating. In contrast to true fundamentalists, the terrorist pseudo-fundamentalists are deeply bothered, intrigued, fascinated by the sinful life of the non-believers. One can feel that, in fighting the sinful Other, they are fighting their own temptation. These so-called Christian or Muslim fundamentalists are a disgrace to true fundamentalists. It is here that Yeats’s diagnosis falls short of the present predicament: the passionate intensity of a mob bears witness to a lack of true conviction. Deep in themselves, terrorist fundamentalists also lack true conviction-their violent outbursts are proof of it. How fragile the belief of a Muslim must be, if he feels threatened by a stupid caricature in a low-circulation Danish newspaper. The fundamentalist Islamic terror is not grounded in the terrorists’ conviction of their superiority and in their desire to safeguard their cultural-religious identity from the onslaught of global consumerist civilization. The problem with fundamentalists is not that we consider them inferior to us, but rather that they themselves secretly consider themselves inferior. This is why our condescending, politically correct assurances that we feel no superiority towards them only make them more furious and feeds their resentment. The problem is not cultural difference (their effort to preserve their identity), but the opposite fact that the fundamentalists are already like us, that secretly they have already internalized our standards and measure themselves by them. (This clearly goes for the Dalai Lama, who justifies Tibetan Buddhism in Western terms of the pursuit of happiness and avoidance of pain.) Paradoxically, what the fundamentalists really lack is precisely a dose of that true “racist” conviction of one’s own superiority.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Slavoj Žižek" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/slavoj-i-ek/william-butler-yeats-s-second-coming-seems-perfectly-to-render-our/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Islam" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/slavoj-i-ek/william-butler-yeats-s-second-coming-seems-perfectly-to-render-our/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ebe/slavoj-i-ek-1738_islam_william-butler-yeats-s-second-coming-see_795436.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ebe/slavoj-i-ek-1738_islam_william-butler-yeats-s-second-coming-see_795436.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ebe/slavoj-i-ek-1738_islam_william-butler-yeats-s-second-coming-see_795436.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“William Butler Yeats’s “Second Coming” seems perfectly to render our present predicament: “The best lack all…” — Slavoj Žižek", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Slavoj Žižek", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/slavoj-i-ek/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“William Butler Yeats’s “Second Coming” seems...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/slavoj-i-ek/william-butler-yeats-s-second-coming-seems-perfectly-to-render-our/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/slavoj-i-ek/william-butler-yeats-s-second-coming-seems-perfectly-to-render-our/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```