OUL welcomes Robert Jensen author, activist and journalism Professor at the University of Texas who maintains that the United States is in the grip of "four fundamentalisms"- religion, nationalism, economics and technology. He maintains that while all share similar characteristics each poses a particular threat to sustainable democracy and sustainable life on the planet. Consequently, each needs separate analysis and strategies for resistance. Taken together these various forms of dogmatism leave American more capable of believing in absurdities and accepting commission of atrocities. Enlightenment notions such as tolerance, basic humanism and intellectual integrity are swept aside.

Professor Jensen defines fundamentalism as
"an extreme form of hubris, a delusional overconfidence not only in one's beliefs but in the ability of humans to know much of anything definitively."

You can access Jensen's essay on the topic at www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2006-06/08jensen.cfm.