Manichaean paranoia

Manichaean paranoia is a rhetorical phrase used in one television show by the American politician Zbigniew Brzezinski to describe the morals of the George W. Bush presidency over USA. Since then it has become an article on that has promoted the phrase beyond what is the normal life length of rhetorical phrases, since blogs use to cite , and since there are a lot of encyclopedic web sites copying texts from .
In the The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Brzezinski defines the phrase thusly:
:the notion that somehow or other he's ' leading the forces of good against the empire of evil, the notion that somehow or other in that setting, the fact that we are morally superior justifies us committing immoral acts
and otherwise pleads to the audience's education to accept this phrase as valid.
The term has its roots in the ancient Persian religion Manichaeism, which held a dualistic view of the world — a viewpoint of black or white, enemy or friend. It split the world into good (or light) and evil (darkness), which are in constant conflict. In Manichaean paranoia, this combines with a paranoia about the darkness, and the irrational fear that evil is actively out to "get" you, causing you to fight against it or be destroyed by it. This can lead to the justification of "evil" actions in the name of good.
This intense dualism can lead to a moral polarization, where every position can take on either a morally good or morally evil cast, resulting in very little ground for neutrality. Because everything is either morally good or morally evil, taking any position other than the good one can result in defaulting to evil. It is possible that those who criticize the morally good are seen as automatically morally evil, while those that pledge loyalty to the morally good are seen as morally good no matter the actions they commit.
There is a distinct similarity between this dualism and the dualism implied by the contrast in Christian and Islamic doctrines between Satan, the original and personal manifestation of evil in the world, and the absolute, eternal goodness of God. The only way to be saved, according to these belief systems, is to adhere to the correct faith. This is analogous to the idea in Manichaean paranoia that loyalty to the correct ideals makes one morally good (regardless of what one might actually do).

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