Why did those French cartoonists and journalists die?

They were victims of hatred, bigotry, religious fundamentalism, intolerance, medieval logic, tribal superstition, political extremism and pathological nationalism. They all played a role, and they are all really the same thing, or different ways of saying the same thing.

Deep down inside, they were victims of fascism. You remember my definition of fascism, don’t you? It is not a social disease, it is psychological: narcissism and paranoia.

Narcissism, because the fascist thinks he’s better than everyone else. He is of a superior race, superior family, or is superior morally or intellectually, or he lives in a superior nation, belongs to a superior culture, subscribes to a superior political or economic system, or worships superior gods.

However, everybody feels superior to his fellows, for some reason or another. So a little hubris alone does not make one a fascist. A fascist is also paranoid. He believes that in spite of his superiority (or perhaps because of it), he is threatened by those inferior to him, that they are all out to get him, that they will take what is rightly his away from him, that they plot and scheme against him, insult him, disrespect him. That all his problems are due to his inferiors who, paradoxically, somehow manage to continuously outmaneuver and undermine him, that if it only weren’t for them, he would be happy, successful, actualized. The fascist is the perfect victim, and because he IS superior he knows why, without any doubt whatsoever. His victimhood, born of suppressed and rationalized feelings of his own shortcomings, leads him to jealousy and violence. He has a right to take what’s his, from those who he feels stole it from him and obviously do not deserve it.

Fascism is a psychological condition, but it can have sociological or cultural roots, too. In fact, it can and has arisen in many cultures. It may not affect all those who are part of that society, but sometimes it finds conditions conducive to it and it grows explosively, consuming and overwhelming any decency, virtue and true value that may exist there. It happened in Russia in the 1920s, in Germany in the 30s, China in the 40s and the Middle East in the 50s. There have been other outbreaks, too, some more serious than others and some more lasting than others. Everywhere, it bubbles just under the surface, waiting for the random trigger that will set it off. And it can happen anywhere.