Retreating From Over-Reaction

I find it odd that all fundamentalism,
from the (r)evolutionary zeal of Richard Dawkins
down through consumerist Conservative Christianity
and primitive Islam, all back themselves up
with a great depth of rhetorical defensive bluster.
This is mode of speech, where the faith
is in power, and words create empty echo chambers
as a substitute for an inclusive public life.
They make systems that perpetuate
a false collective self that they can't see
and therefore can't turn off or retreat from.

The second oddity is how, in thrall to their own voice,
they fail to see that a similarly reactionary defence
becomes the most obvious way of retreating from them,
so they back each other up in a public mutual deafness.
Thus the main choice for the individual
who values the single self is to join in with the rhetoric
or retreat into an agnostic relative silence.